Beauty and The Riddle
by Daianira
Summary: Things in the war are bad. Scratch that, things are horrible. That is why Hermione ends up in a totally different time, with a mission to change everything. No pressure, right? She finds allies in the strangest of places, and learns that there are many ways of defeating the Dark Lord, some more dangerous than other... Tom/Hermione/Draco... Rating might go up!
1. Twisted Fate

Disclaimer: Nope, I own nothing bit the idea, OC and stuff like that!

_Hi! So this is my first Tomione, time-travel story! I am really excited about everything because I will be doing things somewhat differently than the usual. I really hope you'll like this and leave some reviews. Anything is basically welcome from new ideas to criticism! Thank you for reading, I truly hope you'll enjoy it!_

_-Captivating Chaos_

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**Chapter 1: Twisted Fate**

In the perfectly logical mind of Hermione Granger, things such as fate or karma were very much frowned upon. It was just some ridiculous nonsense people used as an excuse for things that happened because of their own mistakes. Those were also the things you could learn about in Divination, a very useless subject with little importance to any intelligent witch or wizard. No, Hermione herself always liked facts and numbers, real things that she could prove, things she could see with her own eyes.

But, seeing the situation she was in, the young witch was ready to admit that karma, if it existed, was really a bitch. She did her fair share of tricks and traps, she even lied a few times when it was convenient, but she seriously doubted that she deserved what was happening to her. It was all still fuzzy in her head, images still running through her mind.

How the hell did she manage to screw up this much?

* * *

"Hermione, watch the left!" a voice warned her from the back as she moved to the side, just in time to miss a dangerous dark curse headed her way.

She continued moving through the battlefield. It was large and enlightened by the curses that roamed from side to side, trying to hit something. In the first hour of the battle the Order already lost a few important fighters. Hermione had seen Cho fall to the ground, hit by one of the stray Killing Curses that Death Eaters showered from above. Two other people died soon after, Dean and George, after long duels with their enemies.

The tears and mourning will have to come later. Now, the only important things was staying alive long enough to see Harry overcoming the Dark Lord.

Unfortunately, as much as Hermione looked for her best friend, she couldn't find him. Ron, too, has been looking for him but the raven-haired boy was nowhere to be seen. Did he decide to flee? Did he leave and let his friends and allies get butchered by the enemy? Was he scared enough to do something like that?

No._ No._

Hermione decided that Harry wouldn't do that. He was a Gryffindor, he was brave and loyal, and he would never leave everyone just because he was scared. Hermione didn't even question that, because her friend _was_ scared, and he had a bloody right to be. No matter how old or experienced would be a fool not to be _at least_ a bit intimidated by the Dark Lord.

But, fear was sometimes healthy. It was an instinct that was entitled to keep you alive. Of course, Hermione preferred to use her head to stay alive, but fear kept her instincts sharper and made her think even faster than usual.

Casting a strong shielding charm around her, Hermione continued running through the field, successfully evading most of the curses sent her way, also hitting and knocking unconscious three Death Eaters. Pursing her lips she decided that they'll have to do something more permanent if they don't want their enemies running around again after a few minutes. Killing Curses were permanent enough and Death Eaters used them very often in dueling, but the Order refused using any of the three Unforgivable Curses unless in a_ hopeless_ situation. Not that Hermione _wanted_ to use them, they were just much more _useful_ than the hexes the Order used.

"Hermione!" a dark-haired boy waved at her. His hair was as hopeless looking as ever, dark and in a complete disarray. Harry looked good and alive as ever, but something on his face showed that he was more serious than ever. His green eyes hard and almost angry looking behind his glasses.

"McGonagall wants to see you. She is by the borders of the front," he informed her "Before you ask where I was, I was with her until now. She has a plan, a strategy that might work if I… If everything else fails."

"What is it about?" she asked him, a frown slowly forming between her brows "And why is she asking for me? If there is an alternate plan we could use, you should wait here until I go and get Ron."

Before she could move back into the denser parts of the battlefield, Harry's hand caught her arm and yanked her slightly back. Her eyes slightly widened as he shook his head slightly at her suggestion. Harry released her arm with a tired expression on his face. There was, after all a lot on his back. He was supposed to defeat the Dark Lord alone, a seventeen year old boy, and his friends were already creating a plan if he failed. It probably didn't boost his confidence much.

"Harry," she slowly asked "What is going on? First, you were gone for the most part of the battle, and now you look like you've already given up on it. Tell me what McGonagall told you when you talked to her. Why me, what about Ron and you?"

"I haven't given up, Hermione, but it would be stupid not to think about all possibilities," he closed his eyes and sighed "And one of those possibilities is that I can lose tonight. Please don't ask me to explain this, professor McGonagall will tell you everything."

"But, what about…" she trailed off.

"Listen, promise me on thing. Whatever you do and whatever happens tonight, don't let your anger control you. Use that head of yours we all love so much and try using your heart some more. It will help you in your decisions," he smiled slightly, reminding Hermione of the boy she knew before all this tragedy started "Everything will be okay, I promise, Hermione."

The boy hugged her shortly and kissed her cheek. But, before Hermione could tell anything to him or before he could see the confused expression on his face, Harry was gone, already running to the middle of the battlefield where the fighting was densest. Hermione threw one last glance towards him and the raging curses flying through air, before she raised her shields again and started running towards the place where McGonagall was supposed to be.

Professor Minerva McGonagall looked as always. The fighting left no obvious damage to her appearance. She still walked with the same confidence and with the same aura that made everyone feel respect towards the older witch.

"There you are," the familiar voice of her Transfiguration professor said "I trust Potter told you I was looking for you."

"Yes, professor, Harry told me you have a new mission you wanted to discuss with me," Hermione nodded at the older witch "But, he really told me no details about it. Just gave me some cryptic advice."

The younger witch frowned, still confused at her friends' behavior. What scared her most was the tone his words came out. It surprisingly sounded like a goodbye to her, and the sad, almost empty look in his eyes that accompanied the words made her think that nothing good could possibly get out of this new plan.

"Yes, I'm sorry for that Miss Granger, but considering the situation at hand I couldn't risk anyone hearing the plan," the witch said looking around. This side of the front was almost empty of the Death Eaters, and some other Order members were walking around and searching the perimeter for any possible threats.

"I am here now, professor. What is this large secret plan no one else can hear about?" not even Ron, Hermione thought with some confusion. Surely, they couldn't not trust Ron, he had after all proven his allegiance more times than she could count.

"Well, you see, I and professor Dumbledore worked on something for years, ever since the First War," professor McGonagall started "It is something powerful, something that we needed to win this war once and for all. Feel free to call it the miracle we needed."

Hermione frowned, but decided not to interrupt her professor. In her head she wondered what was with everyone and their puzzling answers. This seemed like it was only going to bring more questions about the impending mission, than answers.

"You see, we couldn't start our plans, not until all factors were ready to use. Even now, without professor Dumbledore, I am still not sure if everything will end up as planned," McGonagall looked at Hermione with one of her worried looks "The device we've created is still not tested, but I am worried we are running out of time and we have no other choice but to use it, today, tonight, now."

"What is this device, professor McGonagall?" Hermione asked, her eyes curiously searching for something on the professor's face.

"I believe you've already had you fair share of experience with Time Turners, Miss Granger?" McGonagall asked, shifting her gaze towards the shiny rays of light in the center of the battlefield. She was waiting, Hermione realized, waiting what they were all waiting. The final duel.

"Yes I have, but what does this have with anything, professor?" Hermione sighed.

"That is the device. Of course it has been upgraded in all possible ways in order to help you finish your mission," her professor said.

"With all due respect," Hermione pursed her lips slightly "I doubt we can solve any of this if we go back in time for few hours or a day."

"I wholeheartedly agree, Miss Granger," the older witch said as she took out her wand and glanced towards Hermione "In fact, I believe one would have to go back decades, more than five decades back, to be precise."

"Then why…" Hermione trailed off as the idea struck her and she narrowed her eyes at her professor "No. I… I refuse. No."

"Miss Granger, this isn't something you have much choice," she said, her eyes full of sadness "The truth is that Potter will lose tonight at the hand of the Dark Lord. The Order will be destroyed and everything you hold dear will be destroyed."

Hermione took a deep breath, turning her head away from McGonagall. It was too much to ask. Nobody was asked to sacrifice as much, nobody was needed to sacrifice as much. Except Harry, of course, to whom this meant the difference between life and death. He was actually taking care of every single life on that battlefield, it was all on his back. But, he was strong and he prepared for this for the last seven years, while she was just supposed to use her head and help with the plans. She only needed to take care of her own life when she was fighting.

"There must be someone else… I am not, certainly not, the right person for this," she said, gripping her wand a bit harder "Why not Lovegood, Ron or Ginny or why not you. There is at least ten other people who would be better for this mission."

"It was actually Dumbledore that decided on that," McGonagall said kindly "He said that you were the best choice, the only choice for this."

"Why would he say that? Why would anyone give me a mission as large as this?" she asked, her back still turned on her professor "Do you truly believe I can defeat a younger version of Lord Voldemort on my own?"

"Professor Dumbledore believed you could, and if he did so do I, Miss Granger," McGonagall took out a letter from her pocket and a small silver locket with a complex design on it "The letter you mustn't open until you achieve the goal of getting in the right time. The locket is something you are to show professor Dumbledore when you meet him there. He will know what it means."

"Professor, I never said I accepted the mission," Hermione said sternly, eyeing the locket and the letter with curiosity.

"And I already told you that you have little choice in the matter Miss Granger," McGonagall gave her the objects. Hermione contemplated on continuing the argument, but decided against it. McGonagall was a friend, an ally and a dear professor.

"Professor, I…" a question wanted to escape her mouth but it was then that she heard a large explosion.

"He's here," professor didn't need to elaborate. Hermione knew exactly who He was. Taking out a recognizable form of a Time Turner out of her robes, professor McGonagall looked at it for a few absent seconds before handing it too to Hermione "You must turn it five times clockwise and then smash it down on the ground, it should do the rest of the work on its own."

"But professor…" Hermione tried again, as McGonagall started walking away towards the fighting.

"Miss Granger, remember to read the letter, it will answer your questions," her professor looked at her with a smile "You can do this, you just need to remember who you are and start using your heart also beside your head. A soul can get you much further than cold logic."

Hermione's mouth slightly opened as she looked at her professor. Those words sounded so similar to Harry's words. She gulped.

"Also," her professor said "Good luck, _Hermione_."

With that McGonagall was gone into the battle that was now louder and bigger than ever. Hermione raised her head to see the Dark Lord and Harry dueling. That was it, wasn't it? She started running towards the center of the fighting, chanting words of encouragement to herself and to her friend. But, before she could reach anywhere near it something threw her on the ground.

In the same moment, the Killing Curse was fired from the Dark Lord's wand, and along with her, her own best friend fell to the ground lifeless.

He wasn't their hope now, she realized.

_I am._

Taking out the time turner from her pocket, she turned it five times clockwise and watched as the sand inside started to work. Before she could smash it to the ground, someone snatched it from her hands. Hermione stared at the sneering face of Draco Malfoy as he eyed the Time Turner between his long, pale fingers.

"What are you doing, Mudblood?" he assessed her with his cold eyes.

Instead of answering him, Hermione kicked him in the leg. He said something that sounded not too nice and the Time Turner fell out of his hand and, before Hermione could quite reach it, it smashed on the ground. Her hand painfully dug into the shards of glass, the pieces piercing her skin painfully.

Turns out, time travel hurt more than anything else Hermione ever felt.

* * *

How the hell did she manage to screw up this much?

She continued contemplating that as she sat in her bed in Hogwarts' Infirmary. Hermione's whole body ached painfully and her hand was probably the worst of all. Her gaze slowly travelled to the boy in the bed next to hers.

She brought freaking Draco Malfoy with her, more than fifty years back in time.

_Disastrous._

_Stupid Karma._

* * *

End of Chapter 1... Chapter 2 should be up by the middle of next week! Thanks once more for reading! Also, if anyone's interested in beta-ing this story, feel free to contact me!

R&R

-CC


	2. Scars of Yesterday

_A/N: Many thanks to everyone who put the story on alert or pressed the Favorite button! It makes me happy ^^ Also, I really appreciate the review made by **Simevra Lestrange**! Many thanks for the nice words,and I really hope you'll continue reading the story. And while this will probably end up as a Tomione fic, I wouldn't give up on Dramione either, because there will probably be some moments between the two!_

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**Chapter 2: Scars of Yesterday**

"Bloody hell!" a high pitched voice cursed, shaking Hermione away from the silent darkness she was in. Since the beginning of war, she had problems sleeping. At days, Death Eaters and other enemies hunted her and her friends, but at nights it was even worse. Hermione dreamt about dark things, terrors and her biggest fears consuming her, destroying her and Harry and Ron before they could finish their mission. It was the reason why she kept waking up with tears in her eyes, but it was also the reason why she tried to distract herself from sleep, usually spending hours in the library, burying her mind with knowledge and infinite pages.

But this time it was different. This time it was calm and silent. Well, it was until someone decided to destroy it. Opening her eyes slowly she vaguely recognized where she was. It was the Infirmary in Hogwarts. Hermione wriggled slightly in her bed, rising to see what was happening. That was when it all came back to her.

McGonagall. The mission. Time-turner. The Dark Lord. Harry's death.

Her breath was stuck in her lungs. Harry was dead, he was defeated by Lord Voldemort. She closed her eyes again, images of flashing lights passing in her mind. So much chaos. And then, the recognizable flash of bright green that hit Harry's body. He died, oh Merlin, her best friend was dead, he died in front of her damn eyes and she couldn't do anything about it. Hermione blinked few times, trying to keep the tears from falling out of her eyes.

Harry was dead, and she was stuck somewhere. Or even better, she was stuck somewhen.

Then, a flash of realization hit her and slowly, far more slowly than necessary, Hermione turned her neck to her right. Yep, he was still there. She quickly snapped her head back from Draco's form. Biting her lip she looked at him from her side, as if checking is he real or not. Quickly, she turned her gaze ahead of her. Yes, he was most definitely there. Taking one last chance, Hermione cocked her head to the side, allowing her eyes to turn and meet his.

He was there, alive and very much awake.

"What the bloody hell?" he snapped, making her jump slightly away from him "Will you stop doing that? You look even more mental then you usually do!"

She continued looking at him, her mouth slightly open. Hermione was far too confused to think of any smart retort she could give to him. Besides, the pissed look he had on his face made her want to punch him in the face and then run as far away as she could.

"Go to hell, Malfoy," she murmured, slowly moving out of her bed. Everything ached numbly as she tried to get up. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she tried to push away the terrible and sharp pain in the palm of her left hand. While everything else on her body seemed to be healing, her palm still hurt her same as in the moment when the pieces of the damn time-turner got stuck in her skin.

"Seeing you here, Mudblood, I can say this place isn't far off from hell," he said, his stormy eyes narrowing.

"The feeling is mutual, ferret," Hermione returned his gaze.

Her feet slowly touched the cold floor. She frowned deeply at the alien feeling. Completely aware that Malfoy was watching her every move with those infuriating eyes, Hermione searched through her outer robes on the table between their two beds. She relaxed slightly, happy to find the letter and the locket still inside her pocket. Taking out the letter she turned it slowly in her hands. The envelope was completely blank.

Except one letter. H.

"Bloody hell," Malfoy cursed again, moving slightly in his bed "Death wasn't supposed to be painful."

Hermione glanced at him once more, the envelope still cold and full in her hands.

"We're not dead," she stated.

"What?" Draco's face now utterly confused.

"I said that we are not dead," Hermione repeated, clearly irritated by having to repeat herself.

"I heard you the first time, stupid," he hissed "I wanted an explanation!"

Absentmindedly biting her lip, she realized that he will have to find out, eventually. Her mission was already near-impossible when she started it, but now, with him involved it was damn far out of her league. It was his fault. He was the one who attacked her out of nowhere and threw the time-turner to the ground. He, himself, smashed it so by all accounts, it wasn't Hermione's fault. Feeling a bit of her guilt going away, she sighed.

"I don't care what you want, Malfoy," she told him seriously "Right now there are more important things for me to do than babysit you here and answer your ridiculous questions."

Taken aback with her serious tone, Draco folded his arms on his chest. Who knows in what trouble the stupid Moodblood got him in. If Granger thought she could talk to him, a Malfoy, in that manner she was seriously mistaken. He was not going to stand someone of her kind to behave like that to him, because he was after all a pureblood.

His angry thoughts still roamed through his head, but he kept them for himself.

"We need to find professor Dumbledore," she finally said, still playing with the envelope in her hands.

"Granger, did you bump you head that hard when you fell?" he asked finally, after a few silent moments while trying to decide whether she was serious or not.

"You said that you wanted an explanation. I am providing you with one," she commented.

"You've gone completely mental, haven't you? Dumbledore has been dead for over a year now," his eyes flashed with something, Hermione couldn't quite name.

"That depends on our point in time, actually," she said as she started biting her lip. Hermione knew she should explain this to him, before someone else does. Unfortunately, she could already imagine his reaction. Needless to say it wasn't pretty or understanding.

"What is that supposed to mean, Granger?" he snapped, hating the confusion the damn girl was causing him.

"You see…" Hermione started.

Before she could even begin explaining Draco the less-than-perfect situation they were in (especially her), the large doors of the Infirmary opened only to show a sharp looking woman in her late forties. She unmistakably reminded Hermione of Madam Pomfrey. Perhaps it was the uniform, or even her hat or the way she did her hair. In essence, the woman didn't look like Madam Pomfrey, but they had the same no-nonsense aura surrounding them.

"You, young lady will immediately return to the bed. Now," she commanded Hermione "After all those injuries your body survived, it doesn't need you to catch a cold."

Hermione easily glided back beneath the white sheets. The woman looked over to Draco who was still lying in his bed. Content to see her other patient obeying her orders, once again the woman turned her attention back to Hermione.

"Do not leave the bed again," she started "You evaded death for just a millimeter, but that doesn't mean you can start walking around a day after," the woman huffed.

Hermione nodded slowly, intimidated slightly by the woman in front of her. She was petite, with light hair and piercing green eyes, unlike anything Hermione's ever seen. They were emerald colored, with a golden circle around them. There were little to no wrinkles on her face, and just a few pale freckled on the bridge of her thin nose.

"My name is Katharina Danes, and you have me to thank for saving you and your friend's life," the woman sounded almost cocky, but seeing that she was right, Hermione didn't react to her over confident tone.

"He's not my fr…" Hermione started but then sighed. What was the point in explaining it to her, she wouldn't understand anyway "Thank you, Ms. Danes. My name is Hermione and that," she pointed at her unexpected deck passenger "Is Draco."

The blond boy was still sulking in his corner of bed, his eyes bored and his arms crossed on his chest. It was obvious he was trying to ignore them all. He could be such a child sometimes.

"Excuse me Ms. Danes, but how long were we out?" Hermione asked next, still twisting the white envelope between her fingers.

"You were found two days ago," the woman answered, while scribbling something on a piece of paper "There were times when you were conscious, but still spent considerable hours sleeping. That wasn't surprising considering the number of injuries you had," Mrs. Danes pointed out, her gaze still lingering on the paper in front of her.

"How serious were the injuries?" Hermione pressed on.

"Your friend wasn't too bad. Few scratches, few bruises and a broken wrist," Mrs. Danes raised her head and looked at her "You, on the other hand were seriously in danger. A few more moments without my medical care and I daresay you would be dead."

"What…" Hermione started.

"A broken leg and a broken arm with a bone piercing through the skin. Internal injuries, serious head trauma, some deep gashes on your stomach that look like apparition gone bad. By the time we reached you, most of your blood was already out of your body," she answered Hermione's question, returning her gaze back to the paper in front of her.

Hermione gulped. She was truly a millimeter from death.

"You said they found us. Who exactly did?" Draco asked, breaking the silence. By the look on his face, Hermione could already see that he was aware that something wasn't quite right. He was, after all, not stupid. Perhaps he was a coward and his loyalties changed every second or so, but he was still cunning and could connect the dots with the clues he had.

"Professor Dumbledore did, of course," she said "You were both lucky that he was going into the Forbidden Forest to collect something," raising her head again from her writing she suspiciously looked from Hermione to Draco as if to try and decide whether to trust them or not.

"About that… What were you two doing in the Forbidden Forest on your own?" raising her both eyebrows up the older woman pursed her lips "You two aren't working for the enemy are you?"

Both Hermione and Draco kept their mouths shut. Hermione because she had no idea who the enemy was and Draco because he indeed worked for the enemy. Everything was silent for a few moments and Hermione felt the itching need to take her wand and protect her. Unfortunately her pocket was empty which, considering the situation wasn't a surprise.

"Well, I guess it doesn't matter if you don't answer me," Mrs. Danes finally huffed "Professor Dumbledore will certainly get the answers out of you, and punish you if he sees fit."

With that frightening statement the woman left the duo watching after her in fear. The woman was scary almost as much as she was pretty.

"That was…" Draco started.

"Intense," Hermione finished for him.

After that, they both sat in silence, contemplating the moments before. Her first morning here was stressful and intense but Hermione was sure that it wasn't going to get better any time soon. She was, after all, on a mission that involved a lot of lying, deception and more Slytherin-like traits she wasn't sure she possessed. Glancing to her side, she looked over at the blond boy. On the other hand, Draco was quite adept at all of those things. Unfortunately making an alliance with him would be tricky. And even if he did, by some miracle, accept her proposition he would surely ask for something in return. That made Hermione unsure whether she wanted an alliance like that. It would be shifty and change as the current events change, and Hermione right now needed something unchangeable and something she could rely on. That something was certainly not Draco Malfoy.

Yet, it was an idea she kept in the back of her mind. A back-up plan.

"Will you now explain what's going on?" Malfoy asked after a while in silence "The more I connect things about what's happening the less I like my assumptions."

"I doubt you'll like what's happening if I explain it," she snorted.

"Well, then I could at least blame it all on you," he snickered.

Hermione ignored him. Somewhere in the back of her head she knew it was partly her fault, but if she admitted that now, she would never hear the end of it.

Both of their head then turned towards the door that was opening again. Mrs. Danes entered in her over-confident manner not even sparing a glance towards her two patients. After her, a very familiar man in purple robes entered the room. Hermione immediately snapped up from her bed and felt her eyes widen slightly. Professor Dumbledore was standing in front of them, the same as ever, only somewhat younger than she remembered him. Without even realizing it, Hermione found herself grinning like an idiot.

It worked. It worked.

The idea that the plan actually worked and that she'll have to open the white envelope and finish her mission was both terrifying and exhilarating at the same moment.

Draco on the other hand was staring at the old man as if he was seeing a ghost. His already pale skin got chalk white and he felt his throat tightening. Whatever was happening, Draco realized it was much worse than he could ever imagine.

"Ah, so you are the two charming people I've met in the Forest two nights ago," he smiled slightly at Hermione and then shifted his gaze to Draco "Care to enlighten me what were you doing there before the beginning of the school year?"

"Um, sir, my name is Hermione Granger," she said after a few moments "And this is Malfoy, um, Draco Malfoy. I am here on an assignment, actually."

Draco looked at her pointedly when she said the word 'assignment'.

"Well then, Miss Granger, what kind of assignment that might be?" he asked, obviously amused by the situation at hand.

"Well, sir, I don't know yet," she shrugged apologetically "It's all supposed to be explained in this letter," she raised the, now crumply, but still white, envelope. Hermione needed a few moments to realize how silly this all seemed to the old man. Looking at him carefully, she was surprised to see that he was still smiling. It wasn't that amusing.

"But I didn't read it yet, sir… I am still unsure whether I should open it," she confessed and pursed her lips slightly "Well, not until I find out something…"

"And what may that be, Miss Granger?" Dumbledore asked carefully.

"The date… I need to know what the date is," Hermione said "Everything depends on the date actually."

"It's second of September," he smiled, challenging Hermione slightly with the tone of his voice.

"What year, professor? I need the year the most," she pushed.

Dumbledore observed her for a long second before his amused smile found its way back to his lips.

"The year is 1944, of course," he answered slowly.

Taking in a shuddered breath, Hermione looked over to Draco who was clenching his fists almost painfully into the white sheets. Damn. She should've told him before, this situation only made it all worse for her. Then, he turned his head towards her, his eyes narrowed once more as he obviously wanted to tell her that it wasn't over yet and that she had a lot more explaining to do.

Taking the locket out of her robes, she glided over it with her thumb, trying to gather up the courage and tell Dumbledore everything. She should be happy since the first part of her mission was achieved, but she only felt dread because she knew that the hard parts were yet to come.

"Well then, sir," she started in her usual voice "I was told to give you this,"

Hermione rose from her bed and walked over to the old professor, holding the locket in her fingers. She raised it a bit higher so that he could see the small object. Hermione half expected him to react to the locket somehow, but Dumbledore seemed as calm as ever. He took the locket from her hand, gently, his eyes taking its form as he turned it between his fingers.

"I will not ask how you obtained this," he finally concluded "But, I do know what this means. Truthfully I never believed it was possible for me to achieve it, not even in the future, but it seems I was mistaken."

Dumbledore took the locket and placed it in his robes.

"Now, Miss Granger I believe you have a letter to read and I have two new students to prepare for the Sorting," he said.

"Wait, professor. You're leaving?" Hermione asked, a pang of disappointment hit her.

"I am truly sorry to cut this short, but you must read the letter alone and decide how to act," he nodded towards the envelope in her other hand "For that time, me and young Mister Malfoy will go to my office and prepare everything for you both."

He beckoned Draco to follow him. Draco's eyes were still glued to Hermione though, as he watched her with a hateful expression. Just dandy. Like she didn't have enough problems to deal right now. But, he still followed Dumbledore out, his expression cold and angry. Their discussion was far from over.

Now, when the large room was completely empty, Hermione couldn't do much but stare at the envelope in her hands. Opening it meant that she accepted the mission. Not opening it meant that she was stuck in 1944. until further and that she was supposed to watch the young Dark Lord in his rising. She wasn't sure she could do either.

Slowly, her fingers still trembling slightly and her left hand still hurting in its bandages she opened the envelope and took out the small letter, written in an unrecognizable but still beautiful script.

_Dear Hermione,_

_There are many ways of dealing with darkness. Just like any other person, you will have to choose how you will deal at the situation at hand. Don't forget who you are and where you came from, allow your heart to lead your head for once._

_Have faith. Trust. Feel._

_Some things can only be seen with your heart._

Instead of a signature, there was only a small rune in scripted at the bottom. It was a rune she couldn't recognize from her studies, but it looked like something she could find in the library.

What was with everyone telling her to follow her heart? She did, that was how the disaster with Ron started and ended, because she used her emotions. Every time she tried listening to any other part of her except her brain, Hermione ended up in trouble. Irritated by the cryptic advice that actually meant nothing and gave no clear instructions on the mission she was supposed to finish, she shoved it back into the envelope.

After a few minutes in silence she picked up her stuff and left towards the Headmaster's office.

* * *

Headmaster Dippet was without a doubt one of the most annoying people Hermione has ever met. After a brief meeting between him, Dumbledore, Draco and Hermione he greeted them and then just left, leaving Dumbledore to finish everything he should've done. Pathetic, really. But, Hermione decided not to think about the small, round man. She kept thinking at the damn Sorting. It wasn't fair that she had to go through this all. Not again.

Draco Malfoy, or right now renamed as Mallard, since having too many Malfoys skipping about seemed to be dangerous and suspicious was quickly sorted into his House. It wasn't really a surprise. What was a surprise actually was the fact that he still didn't seem to be running away or yelling or cursing her. Instead he looked quite calm throughout the meeting, the talk and his sorting.

"Go ahead, Miss Bennett," Dumbledore pointed her to sit "The Hat should sort you next."

Hermione and Dumbledore both agreed that she could use her own last name, but Draco was persistent and said that if he had to lose his 'pure, high and mighty' last name, so should she. Although begrudgingly, Hermione had to agree to this. That meant that now her name was Hermione Jean Bennett. She decided to keep her identity as a muggleborn witch. The rest of her false biography resembled her real life, so she didn't have too much trouble remembering it all.

Hermione kept her head high as she sat on the chair and took a deep breath. The old, ugly looking hat was put on her head and she patiently waited for the familiar voice.

"Ah, Miss Granger… Or Miss Bennett, whichever you prefer," the Hat chuckled inside of her head "You remain same as the first time we've met and yet so different."

"That doesn't have any sense," Hermione frowned.

"Right now, most things don't, Miss Bennett," it said "But, if you play your moves right, it will all get clearer."  
"That's real helpful," she sarcastically commented.

"But enough of that, you certainly aren't here to listen an old hat!" it decided "Now, you're here to get sorted. Again."

"Yes. Just put me in Gryffindor and I'll take it from there," she said.

"Hmm… You have the qualities that would be valued in Gryffindor, but I cannot see you fulfilling your destiny there," the hat pondered "No, Hufflepuff is out of question you certainly wouldn't be the right person for that House. Ravenclaw is close enough but, I can feel your ambition and something else beneath that…"

"No, wait… What are you… Don't you dare put me in that wretched House… I'm a muggleborn witch, it won't work!" Hermione continued ranting, but the Hat was obviously not listening.

"SLYTHERIN!"

Dumbledore didn't seem too surprised, while Draco was gaping at her. Hermione was mostly irritated by the series of disturbing events that keep on happening. Too bad that they were only going to get worse.

"Professor, you asked for me," a calm new voice made Hermione flinch a bit.

"Ah, Tom, yes I have," Dumbledore said "I wanted you to be the first to meet the newest two additions to your House. These are Draco Mallard and Miss Hermione Bennett,"

A flash of recognition flew through both Hermione's and Draco's eyes, even before Dumbledore introduced the young man in front of them. He looked at them with a polite expression that was hiding his true bored feelings.

"This is our Head Boy, Tom Riddle,"

Hermione sighed deeply, not sure how to react as his eyes passed over her and the blond boy next to her, assessing them with his never-changing expression.

"Blimey," Draco only muttered beneath his breath.

Now he realized what the mission was about. And he didn't like it. Not at all.

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I released the chapter earlier than planned, but that's okay! I kind of hope to get some more reviews too, since they really do keep me writing! The third chapter will get posted somewhere round the end of the week. Perhaps even earlier, who knows!

-Captivating Chaos


	3. What's Your Name?

A/N: Hey, so as promised here is the 3rd chapter to the story! I would really like to thank **Kittycatfight** and **Cassie-D1** for leaving a review! I am trying to keep the characters as in character as I can, so Draco will probably have his _arse_ moments! Many new characters introduced in this chapter! Read on and enjoy!

P.S: Next chapter at the beginning of next week, so leave some reviews or ratings when you finish reading! ^^

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**3. What's Your Name?**

There was a prolonged silence after the Head Boy was introduced. Draco didn't react at the glares Hermione was sending him, and kept staring at Riddle, not even blinking in the meantime. If that was his way of being inconspicuous, he was doing a truly pathetic job. On the other side, Hermione kept switching her eyes as far away from the boy as she could, looking at anything else but him. She pursed her lips slightly trying to entertain her attention elsewhere.

Dumbledore seemed amused by the situation at hand, but decided not to interrupt it. Hermione gave him a hard glare but he ignored it, his eyes twinkling behind his half-moon spectacles. Managing all of her courage, she finally looked at the boy, hoping that her fear and hate won't be too visible on her face.

"A pleasure, Mr. Riddle," she said finally, attracting his attention. Hermione couldn't help but flinch slightly when he moved his eyes to her form. They were dark blue and cold, nothing like the pleasant and polite demeanor the rest of his body gave away. His hair was almost black, slightly wavy and groomed to perfection. It clashed with his pale skin, making him look aristocratic and royal. In fact, his whole posture looked like something out of a book. Too perfect, rehearsed too many times.

"The pleasure is all mine, Miss Bennett," he smiled to Hermione. She frowned uncomfortably under his gaze. That was definitely not where she wanted the young Dark Lord keeping his attention. So, Hermione turned her head towards Draco, who was standing next to her and still had issues with tearing his gaze away from Riddle. She stepped on his foot, trying to keep her nonchalant posture, as he jumped slightly behind her, finally glancing at her. Hermione gave him a warning glance as his eyes turned from fear and confusion to understanding.

"Mr. Riddle," he finally managed to murmur a greeting, keeping his eyes on Hermione. He was supposed to be a better actor, but the shock was obviously too much for him to handle. Hermione could hardly blame him, since she knew the plan and was still taken aback at how Riddle looked. So normal, polite and human. But that was after all just a mask, his appearance just didn't match his personality as good as it will in the future.

"Mr. Mallard," Riddle said, his calm eyes skipping slightly from Hermione to Draco as if to try and decide what to do with them. It was a calculating look, much more in-character with the person who was supposed to become a Dark Lord in the future. Dumbledore was still staying on the sidelines and keeping silent. It was obvious that he wanted to get as much information as he could from these short, close encounters.

"Well, now," he finally ruined the silence "Tom here will show you to the Slytherin common room and help you settle in. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask any of the students, I am sure they will be delighted to help you,"

"Thank you, professor Dumbledore," Hermione nodded.

"Also, I took the liberty of creating your schedule here with the help of Mr. Mallard," he smiled and reached over to his large table taking a piece of parchment before handing it over to Hermione "Quite a bit of classes you have here, Miss Bennett. If you need any help with your work," he emphasized the last word "Visit me and we shall discuss it. Also, I do believe you'll need your wand back… Just try to keep away from dangerous spells next time, will you?" he winked.

It was a part of the story they came up with. Hermione nodded and happily accepted her wand and stuffed it into her pocket and her schedule, immediately scanning the contents. Her widened just slightly, before they narrowed and turned towards Draco who was trying to keep the smirk out from his face. He added Divination to her classes, and she felt none too happy to see that wretched class on her schedule. It was a stupid waste of time she could've used in a better way.

"Go along then," Dumbledore said with a smile "And good luck."

With their final greetings, the three of them left the office. Hermione felt a wave of danger and insecurity flashing over her as she closed the door. She was alone with the future Dark Lord and one of his future minions. That wasn't the definition of safety in her book, so she kept her uninjured hand in her pocket, feeling the warmth of her wand under her fingertips. It was good feeling its familiar form again. But, if Riddle decided to attack her now it wouldn't really help much, since she was certain that he knew how to duel and was a dangerous opponent even in his seventh year.

"We've never had any transfer students before," Riddle said nonchalantly, walking through the long corridors.

"Oh, really?" she blurted out, because that sounded like something she would've never said. Great, now she sounded like an idiot, unable to make a sensible sentence. Did she truly bump her head that bad?

"Yes," he answered "It is quite an unusual occurrence, especially with the two of you in your final year,"

He sounded suspiciously… Friendly, and that made Hermione crumple her nose slightly in dismay. This was scarier than most things he did in the future.

"Well, we wanted to finish our schooling successfully, and that wasn't possible any more at our previous schools," Draco lied swiftly, before Hermione could think of something.

"Where did you go to school before?" Riddle asked, keeping his tone perfectly balanced between interested and polite. It made Hermione want to answer all of his questions. Frowning, she looked over to Draco in confusion.

"I went to Durmstrang," he said easily, not sparing a glance to her. Seeing that he knew practically everything about the damn school, Hermione wasn't surprised that he chose it. Also, with his knowledge in the Dark Arts, he certainly won't have a problem backing up his story. Riddle looked at Draco shortly, as if assessing his answer and then switched his gaze over to Hermione.

"What about you, Miss Bennett?" he asked conversationally.

"I was privately tutored," she said shortly and looked away, hoping that her act was believable enough.

"Oh?" he quirked his eyebrow in surprise "And what made you come to Hogwarts?"

"My family disappeared in the war, and since my father's friend knew professor Dumbledore, he managed to get me into Hogwarts," she automatically answered, already prepared for the question.

Riddle's expressionless features seemed to ponder on her words a bit longer than they did at Draco's, and Hermione found herself reflexively gripping her wand tighter in her pocket. She wasn't going to let herself get unnerved or allow him to make her feel uncomfortable. So, she just smiled slightly at him, trying to make it look believable and continued walking along.

"Aren't you lucky?" he asked with a smirk "I do hope you will manage to keep up with the tempo at Hogwarts, especially with the number of classes you have. Of course, if you need any assistance, feel free to ask,"

Manage? She was the freaking brightest witch of the century, of course she could keep up. Hermione wasn't some brainless bimbo who failed her classes or needed assistance with anything. She slightly narrowed her eyes, trying to keep her expression as calm as she could. How dare he insult her intelligence, the arrogant jerk?

"I think I'll manage," she said through her teeth.

Draco nudged her slightly, his eyes trying to ask 'Are you trying to get us both killed?' or some kind of similar question. She was now sure that Riddle wasn't used to anyone using that tone of voice when speaking to him because his walking pace was slightly faster and one of his hands was in his pocket, probably doing the same thing as Hermione. Holding onto his wand, preparing to use it, perhaps?

"Of course," he finally said, his voice just a fraction colder than before. Most people wouldn't even notice the change, but what was once polite but distant now was frigid and dangerous. It was such a fine line between the two.

Hermione couldn't help but relax slightly as they reached the dungeons without any more questions. The temperature was slightly lower than in the upper parts of the castle and Hermione could already tell that she was going to miss the Gryffindor tower in which she spent the last six years in Hogwarts.

"Pureblood," Riddle commanded, opening the door to the Slytherin common room. Raising her eyebrows in irony, Hermione stepped inside, along with Draco who was glancing around the place, probably trying to see how much the place has changed since the last time he was there. It was, traditionally, in green and silver tones, very large and expensive looking. It actually made the Gryffindor common room look like a closet, seeing the expansive size of it.

"The boys are on the right staircase, girls to the left," he informed them, as he continued pacing through the large common room "Mr. Mallard, you will be sharing the dormitory with three other boys from our year. And, you Miss Bennett will be in the room with two other ladies,"

Hermione gaped slightly around until her eyes started hurting. Too long she's spent time hating these colors and now she was supposed to live here. It was going to take some time to adapt to the drastic change. Draco on the other hand felt right at home, as he casually walked around the common room like he spent half of his life there… This, in a sense was true.

"You are free to go rest and unpack. Others will probably be arriving shortly, since the classes are ending soon," Riddle turned towards them, his polite demeanor back "Be sure to introduce yourselves. Now, if you'll excuse me, I do have some assignments to finish," he nodded slightly and passed by Draco and Hermione without sparing them another glance.

There was a long silence after that. Hermione was lost in her own thoughts, trying to figure out how the hell she got herself in this situation. On the other side, Draco was standing just a few meters away lost in his own problems. Hermione knew that Draco was bound to ask questions about everything that happened, but instead she raised her eyebrows as she watched him casually slipping in one of the luxurious chairs.

"So… Hmm… Nice décor," Hermione finally said. Silence was beginning to drill holes in her head.

"We're stuck here and I'll you have to say is comment on the interior design?" he gritted his teeth "Bloody hell, Granger, what happened?"

Oh, he finally remembered that he was supposed to ask questions.

"Not what, Malfoy, but who," she snapped at him, using his real last name "And it seems that would be you. If you didn't try to become the hero for the Dark side, you wouldn't have got here and I wouldn't have another problem on my back," she continued sarcastically "So don't you dare patronize me. If I want to comment on the décor, I have a bloody damn right to!"

"Screw you, Granger," he hissed "It isn't my fault you're completely incompetent. I couldn't care less about your problems, or about you for that matter,"

"The feeling is completely mutual," she narrowed her eyes at him "You have no idea how many people were sacrificed so I can come here, but you, you had to ruin it all with your idiotic ideas!"

"Don't you dare yell at me, Granger, like it was my fault," he answered with the same force "Are you truly idiotic enough to believe I was just going to let you pass by? It's war, Granger, and we are on the different sides, fighting against each other,"

"I know bloody well what war is, Malfoy, but perhaps you are the one who needs help figuring things out," she offered, her voice menacing "As I recall, you're the one who hides behind his father whenever something goes wrong,"

He slightly jerked from his chair when she mentioned his father. It was, without a doubt, a touchy subject for him. Hermione made a mental note to remember that. It could be useful in the future.

"Shut up, mudblood," he continued in a slightly quieter voice "I am not going to put up with you and your big mouth on matters you can never understand,"

"Ditto, Malfoy," she crossed her arms.

They both avoided each other's eyes for a few moments in silent contemplation. Hermione was unsure how to act with the situation at hand. Draco and she could never be friends, but she used to believe that if they tried they could at least be allies. After all, they were currently on an unknown territory. But, his disgusting attitude made her change her mind. They could probably be nothing else than rivals.

Hermione was prepared to be alone in a different environment, surrounded by people she didn't know, and that way it was supposed to be easier. A clean start, a chance for a new beginning, a mission she could try and perform without any distractions. Unfortunately, now all that changed, and plans she had before couldn't be applied on the current situation. Malfoy was a wild card, unpredictable and possibly very dangerous.

"What do we have to do to go back?" he asked after a while, some of the tension disappearing.

"I don't know… McGonagall never told me," she answered honestly.

"So, really, you are on a suicide mission and have no way of going back?" he asked menacingly "This would be almost comical if I wasn't here with you," Draco added more to himself.

"I never said that there was no way, I just said that McGonagall never told me," she frowned at him.

"Well, pardon me, but McGonagall doesn't seem like the type to forget something like that," Draco said calmly "If she didn't mention it, I doubt there is a way out…"

"Aren't you an optimistic ray of sunshine today?" she asked sarcastically.

"Being time-travelled to death isn't the way into my good graces, Granger," he snickered.

Hermione snorted at this.

"Like I would want to be in your good graces, Malfoy," she retorted.

She could see him watching her quietly from the edge of her peripheral vision.

"What?" she asked suddenly, her eyes turning to meet with his.

"Well, aren't you going to share with me the brilliant plan the Order wanted to perform this time?"

"Why the hell should I?" Hermione frowned. He was just going to make this more difficult. And he's going to love every minute of it.

"Ah, I forgot. We are after all enemies in the war, aren't we?" he smirked.

"Were," she said.

"What?" he turned his confused gaze to her again.

"We were enemies in the war," she answered "But, since the war has yet to begin, officially, we really aren't enemies. Rivals, probably more likely, though it is quite obvious who is better," Hermione continued confidently. She did have the best grades in her generation.

"As long as I am not required to like you or be too friendly with you, feel free to call it whatever you want," he said, ignoring her challenging words.

"Rivals it is," she said finally.

"So, then… Aren't you going to share the plan with your… Rival?" he added cheekily.

"Nope," she said with a frown "You have to prove you're trustworthy before I share this valuable information with you,"

"How do I prove that?" he asked, mix of confusion and disgust on his face.

"I'm sure you'll think of something," she said, amused by his confused brooding and turned around towards the girls' dormitories.

Soon after, Hermione found herself in front of the room where the other seventh year girls slept in. It was really surprising that there were only three of them in Slytherin, along with herself. Even in lower years, Slytherin females were few. It was obviously a boy-ruled House. Hermione found herself frowning on that thought. She knew she shouldn't really interfere with the balance of anything other than Riddle, but she also knew that she wouldn't be able to stand on the sidelines and do nothing.

Opening the door she found herself looking into a large, nicely decorated room with three beds. It wasn't lavish, but it looked nice and cozy. Two beds were already occupied by the looks of clothes thrown onto them. The third bed was far in the other corner of the room and it was empty. She took that as a good sign and threw her small beaded bag onto the green sheets.

She sat on her bed and threw herself back, her legs dangling on the side. Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her chat with Draco was mainly useless, as was his presence. But, she was quite surprised he wasn't the drama queen he usually was. Actually, Malfoy was surprisingly calm and composed with the situation. Sure, he wasn't elated about it, but he didn't yell or argue (too much) or try to kill her along the way. This didn't mean that she could leave him unattended, not without some kind of plan or agreement with him.

"Who are you?"

Hermione bolted up from her bed, her wand already prepared in her hand, her lips ready to utter a hex. A tall, dark-haired girl was standing at the door, her eyes confused and her slender arms crossed at her chest. The girl raised her eyebrow at Hermione's wand, as if she was challenging her to use it. Hermione lowered her wand and sighed. The war made her reflexes better than ever, but her socializing skills were suffering at large.

"My name is Hermione Gr.. Bennett," Hermione said, almost using her real last name.

"Oh," the girl nodded "Tom mentioned you at the table… My name's Cassiopeia Black," she continued carefully watching Hermione, as if assessing her for some reason.

"Right," Hermione answered awkwardly "Nice to meet you," she was aware that she was meeting one of Sirius' ancestors, Hermione knew she heard or saw this name somewhere. Too bad she didn't pay much attention to it at the time, now it could've been useful.

The girl nodded and passed by Hermione to the bed on the other side of the room. Hermione noticed how tall and slender she was, with long and dark hair that looked silky and straight, falling down her back. She wasn't really beautiful like some girls Hermione knew, but she was still pretty with cat-like yellowish eyes and thin lips.

She didn't seem very talkative or friendly, which was completely fine by Hermione. That meant she didn't have to explain herself to her. Also, Cassiopeia mentioned Tom, meaning Riddle, meaning the future Dark Lord, was already informing the rest of the Slytherins about her and Draco. People were now probably already filling up the common room.

Damn. Students were returning.

She left Draco alone in the common room.

Running down the stairs into the common room, followed by Cassiopeia's calm eyes which she kept behind her Potions book, Hermione already had the worst scenarios in her head. Who knows what that git could do in a few minutes, Merlin knew he was a good liar and that he disliked Hermione.

"Whoa, they're like… Like almost identical!" someone shouted from downstairs.

"Yeah… You two sure you aren't cousins or something?" another voice popped up.

Hermione finally reached the end of the stairs and was immediately stunned by what was happening. There was a small group of boys, perhaps five or six of them standing there, and they were all watching two blond boys in the middle of the room who looked at each other, their gazes amused by the situation around them. Obviously, they loved the attention.

That was when Hermione found herself horrified. There were two of them. As if the horrendous situation couldn't have gotten worse. Once again, fate proved her wrong.

"Can't say we are, it's the first time I've seen the bloke," one of the two blond boys answered, before turning to the other blond boy next to him "Say, we haven't met, have we?"

"I believe not," he answered "Name's Draco Mallard,"

"I'm Abraxas… Abraxas Malfoy," the other one smiled charmingly and they shook hands with each other.

That was when Hermione first started noticing the difference and realizations hit her. It was Abraxas Malfoy, Draco's grandfather. It was no surprise they looked alike. Although, now when Hermione had a bit more time to look at them, she became aware of more and more differences between them. Abraxas was, unlike Draco, much more muscular and had an intimidating aura. They were around the same height, with same platinum blond hair and pale skin.

As she watched over them, she found that Draco noticed her in her hiding place, at the shadows, still standing at the last stair. He raised his eyebrow slightly at her and smirked. Before she could turn her frantic gaze to an angry one, Draco already ruined it.

"Hermione, really, you shouldn't hide," he sounded far too pleased with himself "Don't be shy, come and introduce yourself,"

Without too much choice, Hermione threw him a mean look, but he just raised his eyebrow. He freaking knew she couldn't yell in front of everyone. Bastard knew how to blow up her plans and make her feel unprepared and insecure.

Suddenly, they all stopped talking and turned their eyes on her. Beside Draco and his grandfather, there were five more boys, including Riddle who was playing with his white yew wand in his hand absentmindedly. His eyes, however, were on her. She slowly walked over to the group, still feeling quite unsure and embarrassed with the complete silence.

"Welcome to Slytherin, I'm Abraxas Malfoy," the other blond boy smiled widely at her and offered his hand. Hesitantly, she took it and smiled at him slightly. He, she noticed, had sky blue eyes unlike Draco's grey and stormy ones. They were more different than she first realized. Also, there was something about him that seemed much more relaxed and friendly, it clashed with his muscular and tall appearance.

"Hermione Bennett," she nodded "A pleasure,"

"The pleasure is all mine," he released her hand with a grin, before looking around at the rest of the boys who looked at Hermione with a mixture of confusion and surprise in their eyes "Oi, you lot. Introduce yourself to the lady, we wouldn't want her to think we're a bunch of impolite gits," Abraxas rallied them.

"Orion Black," a dark haired boy said with a lopsided grin. He took her hand and kissed it, the grin never leaving his face "Truly an enormous pleasure meeting such a wonderful lady,"

Hermione felt herself blush just a bit as she nodded and smiled tightly, obviously uncomfortable. On the side she could see Abraxas rolling his eyes, because apparently Orion was a flirt and this wasn't anything unusual.

"Hey, Hermione… I'm Marcus Rosier!" the boy smiled widely and shook her hand violently before backing a bit "You don't mind me calling you Hermione, do you Hermione? It's such a pretty name!" Marcus said with his big smile, his brown and curly hair falling in his eyes. Hermione couldn't help but think that he looked a bit like a cure puppy.

"Sure… Um, Marcus," she smiled "I don't mind at all,"

If not, it will make things much easier to her. She still wasn't used to her new last name. At her words, Marcus' smile grew even larger, and he nodded gladly. He was obviously also happy that she used his first name when talking to him. At least making new friends didn't seem that hard. But, she doubted that everyone will be as forthcoming as Rosier… Um, Marcus.

"Alistair Lestrange," a tall and dark looking boy nodded curtly, not making a move more to greet her. Hermione returned the smile tightly, not entirely comfortable with his last name.

"Name's Edmund Avery," he smiled slightly, shook her hand slowly and then moved to stand somewhere near Lestrange. He had lighter hair, colored like sand, with hazel eyes and a nice smile that made him look

"Great, now that everyone's met everyone…" Abraxas started, but screeching voice stopped him.

"A new student?!" a girl stomped inside the room, her petite figure a bit on the heavy side. She gasped when she saw Hermione "You're the new girl!" Hermione was unsure whether she should be scared by her behavior or flattered.

"My name is Unna Parkinson, and I am so glad to see another female here!" she almost yelled at Hermione, before seizing her right arm and pulling her to the stairs "Come, I'll help you get comfortable and explain you everything about this school and the students and the Houses, and I'll also tell you about the professors and about the classes! We are going to have such a great time together… We will surely be great friends, I can already feel it!"

The girl continued pulling her up the stairs. She threw one exasperated look towards Draco, as if begging him to do something about the situation.

"Sorry, Bennett, I can't meddle into girl stuff now, can I?" he smirked and raised his brow.

"Oh, I am so going to return this, Mallard," she hissed behind her shoulder, while Unna continued speaking about all the things they were going to do together.

"Have a nice time, Bennett," he smirked as she completely disappeared from view.

Hermione was seething with anger by the time they reentered the room. Cassiopeia did as much as glance at the two girls before returning to her book, obviously full of disinterest in them.

As she continued half-listening to the girl in front of her, as she continued speaking about her life, parents, her crushes and school, Hermione found something that made her smirk slightly. Draco was perhaps not forced to listen the life-and-times-of-Unna, the biography, but he was downstairs. Riddle was too, and if Hermione had to choose between the two, she would definitely always choose to listen to Unna.

She smirked.

"Oh, hey," Unna finally stopped talking, before looking at Hermione with confusion "I didn't get to ask, what is your name?"

Hermione sighed deeply, and introduced herself once more, the umpteenth time for the day.


	4. Somebody's Always Watching

**A/N: **This is by far the longest chapter I wrote, 6042 words(without the author's note). I would really like to say thanks to **Obey the Muse** who pointed out some mistakes and some things that aren't clear enough in the story. It really helped me see how and in which direction I should advance. So, yeah many thanks for helping me improve the story. Most of the things will now probably be explained either in this or in the next few chapters. Also, I wouldn't forget the rest of my reviewers whose nice words keep me writing: _just ana, AMUTOforever305, Cassie-D1_ and _Obey the Muse. _Also, I noticed that someone left an anonymous review considering the romance in the story. Well, I just wanted to say that having more than two guys interested in Hermione at the same time would be a tad too much, at least in my opinion. Besides, all the Knights will probably have some minor plot lines of their own, but I doubt any of them would be romantically interested in Hermione. Just saying, don't kill me, but I just don't think it would be realistic for all of them to be attracted to her.

Oh, also.. I wanted to mention that English is my second language so, as much as I try to keep the mistakes at bay, they are always lurking around and in the end they just happen... Thanks for reading, on with the story then...

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**Chapter 4: Somebody's Always Watching**

Hermione wasn't really a morning person. It was probably due to the fact that she spent a lot of time in her bed reading, instead of sleeping. Nevertheless, she would rather drop from exhaustion than miss her classes. But, after a night spent talking with (or rather listening, since Unna didn't seem like the person to shut her mouth and listen what others had to say) her new dorm mate, Hermione was ready to wave a white flag and continue sleeping until the afternoon. Unfortunately, as much as Unna liked to talk, Cassiopeia liked order and precision. That was why Hermione was now up, trying to brush her hair.

Cassiopeia woke Hermione exactly forty minutes before breakfast, but by that time Unna was already out. That girl certainly had some energy. While Cassiopeia already looked nice and rested, Hermione was barely keeping her eyes open long enough to put on her clothes. Her hair was as unhelpful and wild as ever, and since Hermione didn't have the strength to fight it, she raised it in a messy bun.

Although barely awake, Hermione's brain was working as good as ever. She already studied through some of the books, just in case some of the professors decided to test her, and already prepared her notebooks and quills. Beside school work, Hermione kept trying to think of something that would ensure her safety but also put her in the position to destroy Riddle. She kept hitting into walls, because the planning was actually much harder then she thought it would be. Not that destroying any young Dark Lords was expected to be easy.

"Are you done yet?" Cassiopeia asked her after a while "We need to get to the Great Hall,"

Hermione was, admittedly, surprised by the fact that Cassiopeia was waiting for her. She actually wanted to go together, and that was very strange considering they didn't spoke more than ten words since yesterday.

"Um, yeah… I think I've brought everything," Hermione said nervously. It was her first day at the school she's been in since she was eleven. It was a strange feeling. She recognized the corridors and the places around the school, but she didn't recognize the people walking around and talking to her. It was frightening on some level.

"Don't worry," the dark haired girl answered after a few seconds "Classes aren't that hard," she then surprised Hermione with a small reassuring smile.

"Thanks, I'll be fine… I just can't help the nervousness," Hermione said as they walked down to the almost empty common room, with just a few younger students walking around.

"That's normal," Cassiopeia nodded "You should've seen the first days of some of the other students in our year… Take for example my cousin, Orion, who blew up the Potions classroom on his first day. Or Abraxas who got lost in the dungeons," she said.

"I doubt I'll be that bad," Hermione smiled "I was more worried of… You know, making a mistake when a professor asks me a question or something,"

"I don't think that'll happen," the girl answered "You don't seem like someone who makes mistakes,"

_If you only knew_… Hermione thought, but kept a small smile tugged in the corner of her lips.

"When did Unna leave?" Hermione asked, confused that someone was up and running so early.

"She always leaves before seven," Cassiopeia answered simply, not adding any explanation to that statement.

The Great Hall was as same as always. By the time Cassiopeia and Hermione reached it, it was full of students. The four tables in it were full of all kinds of food, making Hermione realize how hungry she really was. Her legs immediately started walking towards the Gryffindor table, but stopped in the last moment and moved to the other side of the room, towards her new green classmates.

The boys were all sitting and conversing with each other. Draco and Abraxas were animatedly talking about something, nodding and laughing at each other's jokes. _Malfoys_. Lestrange and Avery were in a deep discussion, their faces completely serious as they talked with their voices low. And then, there was Riddle, who just sat and observed everyone in the Great Hall. His face was confident and arrogant, like he owned the whole place.

Hermione sat next to Cassiopeia, leaving a space next to her empty. As soon as she sat, she could feel that some eyes were immediately drawn to her. Lowering her head slightly, she stared at her empty plate as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. Unfortunately, it wasn't that easy to get rid of curious observers. She could clearly hear people from other tables asking questions and commenting. Cassiopeia didn't notice, or perhaps didn't care enough about the situation to do something about it, she just lifted a book and continued reading it.

"Hermione!" Marcus Rosier slipped in the empty seat next to her, with a huge smile on his face. His brown and curly hair was as disheveled as ever, but his blue eyes were friendly and inviting. "How do you like Hogwarts so far?"

"It's very interesting," she returned the smile "I can't wait to start with the classes, actually,"

He nodded and started pushing loads of food on his plate. Hermione frowned slightly at the scene. He reminded her of her friends, Harry and Ron. He was smiling all the time, he was friendly and very forward, and so Hermione just couldn't wrap her head around the fact that he is one of Riddle's first followers. The other boys were obviously looking up to him, checking their every word by glancing in his direction, trying to earn his approval. Marcus didn't seem interested in anything else but the food on his plate. Seems like looks can be deceiving.

"You'll do great, Hermione," he said after swallowing some of his food "What class do you have first?"

"Potions," she said "That's Professor Slughorn's subject, right?"

"Correct," he nodded "Professor Slughorn is also the Head of our House, so anything you need…"

"Better go and ask someone else," Cassiopeia interrupted from her other side, raising her head from the book "Professor Slughorn isn't really the most helpful person in Hogwarts. But, he is quite lenient with his own House so I doubt you'll have problems with your grade,"

"He's not that bad," Marcus disagreed "Remember when he helped us with those traps the Gryffindors made at the beginning of last year? We were all dyed in red with yellow dots. It was horrible. Slughorn solved it!"

"Yes, he turned us all purple… But if you call that a solution…" Cassiopeia trailed off.

"Purple is a big improvement, and it complimented nice with our green uniforms," Marcus smiled and started eating his fourth pancake "It all happened right before a large Quidditch match between us and Gryffindor. It would've been a disaster if our whole team and our fans were red and gold," his face held a note of disgust as he continued with his meal.

"Not all of us… Riddle was unaffected," Cassiopeia mentioned "So, exactly one fan would be cheering for you. How cheery," she said dryly.

"I can't really imagine Tom cheering," Marcus smiled "Besides, Riddle is always unaffected. Nobody would risk pulling a prank on him, being the Head Boy and top in every single class," Marcus snorted softly "Not that anybody wants to trick him. Everybody likes him,"

"Huh… Too bad he never likes anybody," Cassiopeia returned to her book without another glance.

"Too true," Marcus nodded absentmindedly before turning his attention back to Hermione "So, are you a sports fan, Hermione?"

"No, not really," she shrugged apologetically "I'm more of a library type,"

"Just like Tom, then. I heard you even have the same number of classes like him," he stated "Oh, well, that's too bad, because we are having a great year with the team,"

"Who's on the team?" Hermione asked conversationally.

"Well, we have Abraxas who is the Seeker and the Captain, I'm the Keeper, Avery and Black are Beaters and also we have Flint and Smith who are Chasers, both sixth-years." Marcus' smile widened "It's all very entertaining and exciting. Do you fly?"

"No, I'm actually terrified of flying and brooms," Hermione smiled slightly, feeling uncomfortable.

"Just like Cassie then. She wouldn't try flying, not even when Avery asked her to fly with him," he said cheekily. Cassiopeia didn't react to this much, she just shoved her nose deeper in the book and Hermione could see a faint blush staining her cheek. In that moment, Unna strolled into the Great Hall with a large smile on her face and sat across Hermione, saving Cassiopeia of having to explain or an awkward silence.

"Hermione, Cassie, Marcus. I trust you are all having a fantastic morning," Unna beamed at them, proving that she was indeed having a great morning.

Cassiopeia just murmured a "Morning," and returned to her book, continually ignoring to meet anyone's gaze. Marcus and Unna, on the other hand, started a discussion about chocolate cakes, leaving Hermione to eat. She reached over the table for a toast.

"Hermione! What's with your hand?" Unna's eyes were glued to her left hand that was still in bandages. Marcus eyed it too, his face too looked slightly concerned, as he shoved another toast with jam in his mouth.

"I just… Fell," Hermione said, retreating her arm back in her lap "Down the stairs at my house. We, um, had a lot of stairs,"

"Ohh… You should be more careful," Unna rose a finger as if to lecture her "Hogwarts has a lot of stairs too. We wouldn't want you falling and hurting yourself,"

"Right, be careful Hermione... Anyway, I should really get going," Marcus said as he rose from his seat "I have Ancient Runes first and I have yet to finish the stupid assignment," he sighed deeply and left with a small wave of his hand, leaving Hermione and Unna to eat.

"I have Transfiguration first so I'll see you on Arithmancy," Cassiopeia stood up and left without a second glance. Unna scurried off with her with a wave of her hand.

Hermione was now sitting alone, few meters away from the rest of the Slytherins. She raised her head and looked around the table, surprised to find Riddle watching her with a frown. It was rather unnerving and she felt like he was trying to figure her out or read her mind. Hermione slightly raised her eyebrow, as if to question whatever he was doing. At first he didn't react, but then the confusion disappeared from his eyes and he smirked. Narrowing her eyes she turned her gaze away. His smirk was even more unnerving than anything else he did.

"Bennett. Let's go," Draco's voice made her jump a bit from her seat in surprise. He wore a guarded look on his face.

As soon as Hermione got up, he snatched her elbow and quickly guided her out of the Hall. His actions were followed by many eyes at the Slytherin table.

"What's wrong, Mallard?" Hermione tried to move her elbow from his grasp, but his fingers were strongly keeping it in place. He didn't answer her question, not until they left the Great Hall. They moved a few meters away from the door and in a corner behind.

"We need to talk," he finally released her arm and ran his hand through his hair.

"Well, talk. Fast," Hermione crossed her arms, not happy in the least about the way he seemed "I have a class in ten minutes, and I need four to get to the dungeons,"

"You can't be serious," he murmured "Classes and school on the side, Bennett, we have a problem,"

"What's _our_ problem?" Hermione frowned.

"Riddle, of course," he snorted and threw a look towards the Great Hall door "You were so lucky when that girl dragged you up. He started asking questions as soon as you left… I had to tell some things," he had an insecure look in his eyes.

"Things, Mallard? What kind of things?"

"He asked how we know each other, you know, since I'm from Durmstrang and you're home schooled," he sighed "I told him our families know each other, that we're childhood friends," Draco frowned, as if disgusted by the idea.

"Did he believe what you said?" Hermione inquired with an eyebrow up.

"I don't know," he frowned and rubbed his eyes tiredly "He kept that expressionless face all the time and just kept asking questions. The others did nothing, just listened… I barely managed to get myself out of it,"

"Dammit," Hermione cursed under her breath "Did he ask you anything else?"

"Some minor things about my grades and subjects in Durmstrang, about our families…" Draco said "But he asked it in such friendly manner that it was hard not to answer, and he just kept on asking and asking about things,"

Hermione nodded. Riddle was trying to find out everything about them, but it was certainly not because he was interested in his new classmates. He found them suspicious. Perhaps it was something they said or how they acted when they first met, but he didn't trust them in the least. Riddle was probably trying to prove his suspicions by asking Draco so many questions. He was waiting for him to make a mistake.

"What if he noticed something?" Draco asked suddenly "Merlin, he is going to kill me," he said in a slightly quieter tone.

"Calm down, Mallard," Hermione told him "He's not going to kill you,"

"How can you know? He already killed, didn't he?" Draco asked with a frown "He is probably just searching for a reason,"

Hermione knew he was right at some points. Her previous investigations proved that he opened the Chamber in his fifth year, released the basilisk and killed a girl in the process. So, he was certainly capable of killing others. The other fact was that the other boys were his followers, which meant he was already on a good way of becoming who he was in the future – Lord Voldemort.

Hermione needed a real plan, real allies. Unfortunately, at the time she had neither. She glanced towards Draco who was still brooding and sulking over his fate.

"I don't think he would kill you," Hermione deducted "It wouldn't work well for him,"

"So, he won't kill me, but he might torture me and threaten me," he said sarcastically "Wonderful! Here I thought my situation couldn't get worse,"

"Hey, we're in the same situation here," she said "Let's just try and keep together whenever we can. I doubt he'll try anything if there are two of us,"

"Bennett, you don't understand," Draco came closer to her and lowered his voice "I will be spending ninety per cent of time with him and his followers. I'm a boy, unless you forgot, and I can't very well go and sleep in your dormitory,"

"I know you can't… But, we don't have to spend the time in the common room, do we?" Hermione asked.

"What do you have in mind? The library?" he asked.

"No, I was thinking more along the lines of the Room of Requirement," Hermione cocked her head on the side "We could use it for meetings and decide on what are we going to do there,"

"So, like an alliance?" he asked, raising his eyebrow.

"Yes, something like that," she nodded "As much as we don't like each other, it's safer to keep together,"

"You're right," Draco nodded with a slight frown "So, what about Friday at midnight? We can start working on a way to get back and solve this mess,"

"It's a deal," she nodded "Now let's go, before we're late for Potions," Hermione started leaving but he seized her elbow once more and she turned her face towards him.

"I also expect some answers, Bennett," Draco said "Merlin knows I still can't understand half of the things that are happening and I feel that the only reason I haven't freaked out is probably due to shock. Also, if we're trying to make some kind of alliance here I expect that I can trust you,"

"Trust goes both ways," she said finally with a nod "You'll have to explain some things too,"

"I'm surprised with you need an explanation from me," he smirked before letting go of her elbow "I'm an open book,"

"Right," she snorted "Sometimes you're harder to read than Rid-.. "

"Bennett, Mallard," a voice called, cutting through Hermione's sentence "Are you ready for your first classes?"

Riddle was casually leaning on the wall just some distance away from them, looking as friendly as ever, his perfect Head Boy act fully masking his true face. Draco just looked at him, then back at Hermione with a questioning look, before he nodded to Riddle.

"Of course, I was just telling Bennett we should hurry," Draco said casually "But then we remembered we have no idea where the classroom was," he shrugged slightly.

"Right," Riddle said with an amused smile "Well, you should've said something, not just left so abruptly. We were, after all, having a nice conversation, didn't we Draco?"

"Yes... Umm… I just saw that Bennett was alone, so I thought I should ask her to walk with me to the classroom," Draco said.

"But then you remembered you have no idea where the classroom was. That would've been a long walk, wouldn't it? Hogwarts is, after all, a big place," he smirked slightly "Anyway, next time, Miss Bennett feel free to join us in our conversation,"

Riddle turned around and started walking towards the dungeons. Hermione looked shortly at Draco before she started walking in the same direction. Her heart was beating just a tad faster than it should, and her palms were just a bit colder than usual. She was keeping her eyes glued to Riddle as he calmly walked through the empty corridors. The class has already started but she just couldn't bring herself to care.

* * *

Professor Slughorn looked as same as ever. He smiled widely when Riddle entered the classroom with Hermione and Draco at his heels. Elated with his two new students he immediately paired them up to work on the Draught of the Living Death.

"I am so glad to see two new students at our Advanced Potions class, and both in Slytherin!" he said with a smile as he patted Hermione on the back "We did this at the end of last year, so I hope you two won't have a problem finishing it. If you do, feel free to ask me anything, or better yet ask Tom. He's the most talented student I've ever had," he told them with a wink and then patted Riddle on the back who in turn smiled his best smile.

"Of course, thank you, professor," Hermione tried her own charming smile she used on professors.

"Suck up," Draco whispered to her as he brought the ingredients to the table.

"Look who's talking," she snorted.

Hermione was glad to say that she already knew how to prepare the Draught, thanks to Harry's book. She effectively explained Draco how and why they weren't following the recipe in the book, but failed to mention where she gained the information.

As minutes passed by, Hermione would occasionally glance towards Riddle who was frowning slightly as he cut the Sopophorous beans, trying to get as much juice as he could. She smirked, because the idea of having a better made potion than the future Lord Voldemort gave her some perverse satisfaction.

By the end of the class, there were two explosions and one student was sent in the Infirmary because he mixed the wrong ingredients and almost got suffocated to death. Riddle didn't even raise his head when two Gryffindors almost carried the poor guy out of the classroom. Hermione, one just gaped at the boy and Draco just muttered something about stupid Gryffindors and their inability to follow the simple instructions in the book.

"Miss Bennett, Mr. Mallard, I daresay this is one of the best made potions I've ever seen," Slughorn said with a smile "Tom, m'boy, it seems you'll have some competition this year! Excellent, excellent… You both take the highest grades and twenty points for Slytherin each,"

Hermione beamed at the professor, Draco just smirked slightly, obviously satisfied with himself. Now when her mood was this good, not even the fact that Riddle got the same grade and the same amount of points as them could ruin it.

"Now, Miss Bennett and Mr. Mallard I would really like to ask you to join me and some of my other students sometimes at a small get-together I hold every now and then," Slughorn said as the students started leaving the classroom. Hermione kept her face straight, but she knew that although she would love to she couldn't refuse an invitation to the Slug Club.

"We'd be honored, professor," Draco said charmingly with a smile.

"Fantastic," Slughorn beamed as he followed them out "I'll send you invitations. If you have any other questions about that or anything else, really, ask Tom. Who knows how would I do anything without that talented boy!" he said "Now, off you go, we wouldn't want you to be late for your next class, now would we?"

Hermione actually wanted to be late for her next class. It was Divination and to say she didn't want to go would be an understatement. She knew Draco signed her up for that particular class only because he knew how much she loathed it. Perhaps she could ask professor Dumbledore to remove it from her schedule. Merlin knew that staring at glass balls and tea cups wasn't her idea of education. Worst of all, Draco didn't see fit to put himself in the stupid class. Instead he had History of Magic. Lucky bastard.

Just to stay as inconspicuous as possible, Hermione followed a group of three Ravenclaws to the Divination classroom. It didn't really surprise her to see that Riddle was there, sitting with Orion Black at one of the tables. As she entered she also saw Cassiopeia and Unna sitting at one of the tables along with a blonde Ravenclaw girl. Unna's lips were moving quickly as she spoke something to the girls at her table.

Before Hermione could ask to a boy and a girl from Ravenclaw whether she could sit with them, someone called her name.

"Oi, Bennett, here!" Hermione turned around to see Black waving at her with a smirk. She smiled uncertainly and walked over to them. Black moved to the side and she sat down next to him. It was uncomfortable and she really, really, _really_ didn't want to be in this situation.

"I thought you were going to ignore us here and leave us to work with Miriam," he nodded towards a large Ravenclaw with a face that resembled a pig. She stomped around the classroom until she saw a free spot next to two other girls who looked at her with mixed fear and disgust "That would've been a disaster," he sighed in relief and smiled to Hermione.

"You make me feel so welcome here," Hermione joked with a small smile.

"No offense, I would've called you to work with us anyway," he gave her a lopsided grin "But once I saw Miriam eyeing this table I felt that it would be just another plus,"

"Oh?" she asked with confusion.

"Tom told us about your brilliance at Advanced Potions," he shrugged "Such a talented and beautiful witch shouldn't go and work with Ravenclaws,"

Hermione raised her eyebrows at him and then looked at Riddle who looked as calm as ever as he watched her with his dark blue eyes.

"Well, this brilliant, talented and beautiful witch is only such in certain subjects," she said finally "Divination not being one of them," her face showed her obvious dismay to the subject.

"That's too bad," Black commented "Here I thought you were perfect,"

Hermione just shook her head at him, trying to look like she disapproved, but unfortunately a large grin was firmly on her lips. That boy was impossible, wasn't he?

"Good day, class!" a high pitched female voice said "My name is Daphne Crealis, and I will be teaching Divination this year, instead of professor Lorelei,"

Hermione raised her eyebrows at the young woman in front of them. She looked nothing like professor Trelawney. She was young, like she was barely few years older than her students, with long red and curly hair and shiny black eyes. But, what surprised Hermione the most was the fact that Daphne didn't seem crazy or demented.

"Wow, she's hot," Hermione could hear Black murmuring beside her. Most of the class seemed to have similar reactions like him. Guys smirked and gave each other significant looks while girls commented on her hair, makeup and clothes. Even Hermione had to admit she was surprised by what was happening. Divination teachers weren't supposed to look like this.

The only one who didn't really comment anything was Tom, who looked at their new professor with no interest. In fact, he seemed as if he was assessing her behavior. Hermione looked back at the professor and then at him. She watched him look at her for a few moments before he turned her eyes towards her, making Hermione gasp a little in surprise. His eyes were chilly and filled with distrust, but she wasn't sure was it directed to her, or was it the reflection of his feelings to the newest Divination professor.

"Now, I want us to start with a crystal ball that is on your tables," she said with a smile "You all know the drill, so if you notice anything appearing watch it closely and write about it for homework. Those who don't see anything can read the first four chapters from the book and write your homework based on that,"

The students started working. Most of them just stared, unblinkingly at the ball. Other frowned at it angrily, and some even talked to the ball soothingly. Hermione glanced over the classroom, waiting for something to happen to make her day better. At her table, Orion was frowning deeply at the crystal object, his face so close to it that he was almost kissing it. Tom, on the other hand, didn't even try using the ball. He immediately opened the book and started reading the first chapter. Hermione bit her lip, unsure whether to take the book and start reading or to stare at a crystal ball.

"You… Miss Bennett, the transfer student," the professor called her name, making a few heads turn towards her. Even Riddle's eyes flickered above the edge of his book.

"Yes, professor?" she asked.

"Call me Daphne," she waved her hand nonchalantly "You seem to have some issues with the work I've given to you. What seems to be the problem?"

"Well, I don't really think I have the gift to see anything, actually," Hermione said "So I was thinking of reading the book instead…"

"Can you give me your hands, darling?" Daphne asked, ignoring her previous statement.

Hermione nodded and offered her both of her hands. Her left still hurt like hell, and Hermione was certain that a part of glass or some of the sand from the Time-Turner got stuck in her palm. Taking both of her hands in her, Daphne started removing the bandages from her hand, revealing three deep gashes in her skin that didn't look even remotely healed. Her professor frowned, and Hermione could her few gasps from the other students. Yes, the wound was ugly but it was nothing considering how much it hurt.

"There is something strange about you," Daphne said quietly "I feel like you shouldn't be here at all… And yet, I can feel that you belong here more than you belong where you came from," she said, looking at Hermione's eyes.

"Professor?" she frowned at the strange expression Daphne had.

"You fight it so much, and you have no idea how much easier it would be if you let go, darling," Daphne's eyes were focused on the gashes on her palm "Let go, because fate will lead you. Stop trying to plan and use your logic, stop being in denial," she said

"I'm not in denial," Hermione tried to pull her hands away, but that made Daphne tighten her grip for a fraction.

"You can't fix some things, because fate will get them done either way. You cannot save them, not until they save themselves, darling," Daphne continued speaking "I can feel your hate and anger strongly running through your veins. But, I can feel something even stronger. You're afraid, darling, afraid and alone here,"

Hermione quickly pulled her hands out of her professor's and stood up from her seat. Without a second glance she left, wiping the tears in her eyes. How dare she say those things, how dare she accuse her of something so ridiculous, something so stupid… Something so true. Hermione realized and slammed the door of the girls' dormitories. She let herself fall onto the bed and cry.

Crying made her feel empty. Empty was good. Better than fear and loneliness. Empty was safe.

* * *

When Hermione woke up, it was almost midnight. She could see the faint figures of Unna and Cassiopeia beneath the sheets on their beds. That was when she remembered what happened. Surprisingly she didn't feel like crying. No, instead she felt resolve and she finally felt ready to begin doing something. Self-pitying herself and crying herself to sleep wasn't something that Hermione did. She blamed it on everything that has been happening lately.

What Daphne said had no sense, Hermione realized after thinking about it some more. How could she say that Hermione belonged here (which she didn't, in any possible sense) and say that she was alone? It logically couldn't work like that. Hermione felt relief. It seemed that all Divination professors are the same, after all. Feeling loads better, Hermione got up from her bed. She straightened her uniform and repaired her bun on the top of her head.

Turning around to take her wand from the small table near her bed, she noticed a piece of parchment. It was written in small and round writing.

_Advanced Hexes – DADA Homework._

_Tomorrow – Dueling_

_-Cassiopeia_

She smirked at the small note. Reading in the library was actually a great idea. The only problem that remained was the problem of getting there and not actually getting caught by anyone on the way. Deciding to take the risk, Hermione easily slipped out of the dormitory and the empty common room before she found herself in an empty hallway. Taking the familiar route to the library Hermione muttered 'Lumos' under her breath and continued walking through the dark hallways.

The silence was absolute as she slowly opened the door to the library and silently slipped inside. It looked the same as it always did. Books were everywhere and Hermione felt a small smile appearing on her lips.

Immediately she started scanning the DADA shelf. There were a lot of books she didn't know, apparently locked in the restricted section in her time, but there were also a lot that were missing, still not written. She recognized most of the titles, though, as she searched through for the Advanced Hexes book.

Hermione noticed the title on the upper shelf and she reached out to take the book. Before she could even touch the covers, someone's long fingers took it from behind her, leaving her empty handed. Hermione turned to face the Head Boy who held her book in his hands, his face watching her with amusement.

"Advanced Hexes? Planning on hexing someone in the middle of the night," he asked "Or just taking a midnight stroll to the library after curfew?"

"I wasn't planning on hexing anyone, really," she said "I just found out for our Defense homework and I need to finish it. Tonight," Hermione emphasized the last word.

"That is not my problem, Bennett," he smirked, still keeping the book in his hands "You, out of your bed this late, however, is,"

"Look, I'm not here to make trouble, I just need to read the book and I'm out," she said, reaching out for the book.

"As I said, not my problem," he moved the book out of her reach "Why should I risk my position only so you can finish your homework? Now, follow me and we'll see what Dippet will give you as detention…"

"No, wait… You wouldn't do that," she protested with a frown "Can't you just take some points and let me leave?"

"Of course I could," he said "But why would I? I won't punish my own House just because you are incompetent," Riddle smirked at her.

"Well, can't you just… Let me go this time?" she asked.

"Do you promise never again leaving the dormitories after curfew?" he raised his eyebrow.

"No, but I promise you'll never catch me leaving the dormitories after curfew again," Hermione said, as she reached for the book again.

"I'm afraid I can't accept that kind of deal," he said, moving the book a bit further once more "But, how about this. A favor for a favor?"

"What kind of favor, Riddle?" she asked, her eyes narrowing a bit.

"I'm not sure, but I will think of something," he added as he offered the book.

"I don't want to play games, Riddle," she said, not reaching out for the book "I can't accept something so vague. You could ask me to jump from the Astronomy Tower, or kill someone or something like that,"

"I'm glad to see I have left a nice impression," he said dryly, shoving the book at her so that she had to take it "I can promise it won't be anything as dire as that," his smirk returned to his beautiful face.

Hermione spent a few moments thinking about what he said. He mentioned it will be something small, nothing of significance apparently. Could she really accept something as vague as that from the future Dark Lord? The answer was probably no, but since the only other option was getting detention (which would mean doing something that will take away the little free time she has left) and that wasn't really an option, Hermione nodded slightly.

"Fine," she started walking away from him, not interested in seeing the glee on his face.

He didn't follow her, but Hermione could clearly sense that he kept his gaze on her all the time. It took a lot of strength not to turn around and see whether that was true. Only one thing was clear after tonight. She needed to be much more careful if she wanted to defeat him on his territory and in his games. She sighed tiredly and entered the dormitory.

Opening a small notebook where she kept her homework notes, she quickly wrote one sentence.

_Someone's always watching._

She stared at it for a few moments and then opened the Advanced Hexes book and started reading.

* * *

_R&R, Thanks ^^_

_-Daianira_


	5. Losing Grip

**A/N: So, I've got this thing going now, and the plot will begin to make much more sense in the next chapter. This particular chapter is mostly Draco and Hermione interaction and some friendly talk between Hermione, the Knights and the Slytherin girls... They all get just a tad friendlier and some more mysteries arise. So, this isn't my favorite chapter but it had to do until I get the next one up. I have a real boom for the sixth chapter which will turn things around! I'm already writing it and it should be up by the end of this week!**

**Thanks a loooot to all who alerted the story or put it on their favorite list! Of course, as always a big special thanks for my reviewers:**

**_just ana, AMUTOforever305, Cassie-D1 _and_ loves2readalways_! You're amazing and your comments are really something that keeps me writing! ^^**

**On with the chapter:**

* * *

**Chapter 5: Losing Grip**

Hermione was running. Her hair was a tangled mess behind her as her bare feet ran across the wet ground. The forest around her was misty and cold, making her lungs fight with every breath she took. Her slender body was dressed only in a short nightdress that provided no protection from the branches and thorns that impaled and cut through her pale skin with every move she made.

She was crying. Tears were quickly falling out of her frightened eyes as she tried to find her way out of the forest. Suddenly, she stopped, turning around and searching for a direction. It was all the same around her: tall trees, the fog… After a while she couldn't even remember what the direction she came from was. Another sob shook her body as she quickly erased the tears with her hands.

There was something out there, something was after her and although she wasn't sure what exactly, Hermione knew that it won't stop until it finds her. She was already freezing, but she couldn't make her body move, her tired legs wouldn't listen to her commands and her bruised and scratched face was dirty. Hermione moved her hand to touch her cheek. It was deathly cold. There was a sticky substance that continued tracing down her cheek along with her tears. Moving her fingers away she gasped at the sight of her own blood.

So cold. The coldness was all-consuming and her lips started trembling slightly. She was already one leg in the grave. But, it was better to die like this than let him destroy her.

She was so utterly helpless and she hated every moment of it. Her shaky legs finally succumbed to the pain and exhaustion. Old leaves and twigs were uncomfortable underneath her, but she still had no strength to move. He was closer, she held her breath, praying for death to come before him. Hermione closed her eyes firmly. Alone and afraid, she was going to die like this, her friends and family forever lost to her, out of her reach.

Because of him. It was easier to live through the days like that, blaming him for everything that happened to her. For her loneliness, her pain, the ache in her chest. Please, let it end quickly, she begged, her lips chanting the silent prayer. The wind danced around her, she kept her eyes firmly shut.

He promised he'll always find her.

* * *

Hermione woke up with a scream. It was loud and high, tearing her throat apart. Her body was shaking uncontrollably as her tears glided down her cheeks. A pair of gentle hands was trying to calm her body, keeping her still. Hermione couldn't, she needed to run, move, and she needed something to protect herself. She didn't want to die.

"Hermione, calm down, please," a female voice soothed her. It was vaguely familiar, but Hermione couldn't connect it with a face or with a name. She wasn't screaming anymore, but she was still shaking and crying uncontrollably.

Hermione could hear the doors open, but she wasn't concentrated on those sounds, she couldn't focus and recognize who came in. She couldn't bring herself to care about it, either. Her hair was wet and was sticking to her forehead and the back of her neck. Hermione could feel the wetness of her own cheeks and she was becoming more and more aware of the gentle arms soothing her and gently gliding through her messed up hair.

Her body was still shaking, but the crying has finally ceased. Hermione was lying on her bed, curled up tightly.

"You're fine now," the calm female voice said "It was just a bad dream. It's all over now,"

Hermione focused her eyes on a dark haired female sitting by her side. Mum? No, her mother was far away, not only space stood between them, there was also some fifty years of difference too. This was someone else. Frowning slightly, Hermione recognized the yellowish and cat-like eyes of Cassiopeia Black. Instead of her usual calm demeanor, her face was worried and gentle, unlike anything Hermione has ever seen. She smiled slightly when she saw that Hermione was awake.

"Hermione, are you okay?" she asked.

Hermione nodded, unable to speak. Her voice was strained and her throat painful from the screaming. She blinked a few times, trying to clear out the remaining tears that were blurring her vision. Her body protested, but she slowly rose a bit in her bed and looked around the room. The doors were open and her other dorm mate was nowhere to be seen.

"Unna left to warn your friend," Cassiopeia explained "No doubt that the scream was heard in the boys' dormitory,"

Hermione nodded once more and let her head fall back to the warm pillow beneath her. She was so tired. By the slightly disheveled state Cassiopeia was in, Hermione deduced it was probably still too early to wake up. She could feel that her eyes were puffy and red from crying and tiredness so she raised her hands and rubbed them.

"Hermione! Are you okay? You were screaming so loudly, I swear I almost died from fear," Unna jumped into the room with a worried look in her eyes "Do you need anything? Are you thirsty or hungry or do you want me to bring someone? I just informed your friend, and he said he 'll talk to you before breakfast,"

"He didn't want to come and visit her now?" Cassiopeia looked confused.

"Well, he was already half way to here when I found him. He heard Hermione screaming and rushed right over. I told him she was in no immediate danger so that he can return to his sleep," Unna bit her lip slightly "He looked worried, but finally agreed to meet her before breakfast,"

Hermione just nodded again with a small and thankful smile. Unna touched her forehead with a small worried frown and decided that Hermione shouldn't sleep anymore for tonight, since there was a chance that the nightmares could return. Cassiopeia quickly returned to her own self, no worry or sentiment on her face. She agreed with Unna with a stern nod. Hermione really didn't have much choice in the matter, but it didn't matter because she was only sure of one thing: she didn't want to be alone.

* * *

Hermione didn't speak too much in the next two hours. She listened to Unna's constant babbling about everything and everyone and to some of Cassiopeia's rare words. Usually, she just nodded and smiled at what the other two girls were saying, happy to just be there with them.

"Okay, so let's get ready for breakfast and classes!" Unna jumped from the bed happily.

"Do you need any help to get ready?" Cassiopeia turned to Hermione.

"No," she said, her voice barely audible. Hermione frowned from the pain. She took her clothes and left for the bathroom. There was nothing she needed more at that moment then a long, relaxing bath. Fortunately, she had time for it. Her day already had a terrible start and she fretted to think about whether it was going to get worse.

Twenty five minutes later, she left the bath, feeling much better. She dried her body and contently dressed in her uniform. Frowning slightly at the Slytherin emblem on the left side of her chest she realized she hadn't really have any time to think about her new House. Hermione wasn't someone who believed in stereotypes, but she did believe there were a lot of things you can know about a person by knowing which House he was in. For example, she knew that Ravenclaws were logical and intellectual, sometimes very curious, that Hufflepuffs were very honest and always wanted to help, and that Gryffindors were very loyal to their friends and never backed down from a challenge. That was the truth she learned through her years in Hogwarts. But, her being in Slytherin opened up a whole new side for her. Yes, most of the students in the House Slytherin were ambitious and willing to do anything to achieve their goals. Cassiopeia and Unna were both manipulative, one using her mysterious aura the other her talkative nature to get near to people. But, neither of them could ever fake care or the laughter she heard in those two short hours last night. Hermione could understand how their minds worked, but she failed to read their hearts and souls.

"If you're finished, we should get going," Cassiopeia said, snapping Hermione out of her thoughts. She nodded and used a quick drying spell before she stuffed her hair on top of her head in a messy bun. In contrast to her, Unna already had her makeup perfectly done on her face and Cassiopeia's hair shone beautifully in dark, straight strands.

"Sure," Hermione smiled, her voice slightly better, but her throat still painful from the screaming.

In front of her and Cassiopeia, Unna bounced happily down the stairs to the Slytherin common room. There the boys she met a day ago, along with Draco, all looked up towards the three of them. Draco immediately jumped from his place in his chair and took a few steps towards her. He stopped just a meter away from her and watched her with his eyes slightly narrowed, as if he was assessing whether she was truly there and was she alive and well.

"You're fine," he stated. It wasn't really a question but Hermione nodded.

"I'm okay," she said quietly, not ready to speak any louder and interrupt the absolute silence around the two of them. Hermione slightly moved, she was uncomfortable with everyone staring and waiting for something to happen with the two of them. Returning her eyes on Draco, she saw that he was still watching her. She stared right back, until he finally sighed as if something tough was lifted from his shoulders.

"Good," he nodded uncomfortably, moving his weight from one side to the other "Let's go to breakfast," Draco said louder "I'm starving,"

Without another glance back, he turned on his heel and left, leaving her confused behind him. Taking a deep breath, Hermione turned to the rest of the boys who were still watching at her. They took their books and started leaving, without any other explanation. Throwing one last look behind his shoulder, Orion Black shrugged apologetically at her and the two other girls and left before Hermione could ask anything.

"That was…" Unna started "Tense. And here I thought things couldn't get any weirder. What's his problem anyway?" she asked with a frown.

"Beats me," Hermione said as she pushed some of her hair back into the high bun.

Cassiopeia murmured something incomprehensible and told them to stop acting like idiots and move before all the good stuff gets eaten by the boys. Hermione couldn't argue that, since her stomach was grumbling in protest. Before they entered the Great Hall, Unna excused herself and said she'll join them later since she was currently testing some new diet. Neither Hermione nor Cassiopeia bought the story for a second, but they let it slide, either not interested in the real reason or too tired to bother and ask questions (and listen to answers).

The Slytherin table wasn't full yet and Hermione found her eyes unconsciously searching for one specific person. The Head Boy wasn't at the table, and Hermione felt like mentally slapping herself because of the fact that he was the first thing on her mind. The fact that she now owed him a favor also made her want to run away and hide in the deepest hole she could find. Was she really crazy and emotionally unstable enough at that moment to accept that kind of undisclosed deal? Yes, by the looks of things, she was. Well, at least it was worth it. She managed to read the whole Advanced Hexes book.

"Are you ready for today's Defense class?" Avery asked from the side, glancing over his friends with some excitement in his voice.

"I think the real question is, are you, my dear friend, ready to get your arse kicked?" added Malfoy from his left and winked with confidence.

"Abraxas, you do remember how your last duel went, don't you?" asked Lestrange with his serious tone "You sulked for four full weeks when you lost,"

"That was only because Avery used a hex that wasn't allowed when professor Merrythought turned her back," Malfoy said furiously "I still have a scar on my hip because of that," he pointed his finger at Avery who looked at him with a smirk.

"Still, you were terrible," Orion said with a grin "You couldn't even raise your shield properly. You jumped from side to side trying to evade Ed's curses like a moron,"

"Shut up, Black," Malfoy hissed "Last time, you dueled a girl and lost, so I don't think you have any right to call me a moron,"

"Next time, you should try and duel a girl like Valeria Clearwater," Orion said almost dreamily "She hexed me so good I can still sometimes feel the pain in my chest. Damn feisty that one,"

"I really liked the last duels," Marcus Rosier popped out of nowhere next to Hermione with his plate full.

"Of course you did," Abraxas snorted "You and Lestrange both won against those damned Ravenclaws. Actually, the only thing I really look forward to in this year is the fact that we have Defense with Gryffindors. Can't wait to duel those suckers," he sniggered.

"So eager to get himself embarrassed," said Lestrange calmly "I doubt that Gryffindors will be easy opponents. As idiotic and thoughtless as they are, most of them are pretty decent in dueling,"

"True," another voice joined them and Hermione raised her head just to see Riddle slip into his usual seat. He looked over all the boys at the table, then at the girls, stopping slightly when he reached Hermione only to allow his lips to curl into a condescending smile, before his eye passed her.

"Though I, for one, cannot wait to see our newest two students dueling," Riddle continued as he looked over to Draco who was absentmindedly playing with the food on his plate, not really following the flow of the conversation. Hermione was sure that Riddle wanted to assess their powers and capabilities and the practical class of dueling was the perfect time for that.

"I think that Hermione will do perfect!" Marcus said through his full mouth. Was that boy seriously one of Riddle's followers?

"Oh? Care to enlighten us on your opinion?" Riddle smirked, obviously amused by Hermione's glare and Marcus' oblivious chattering.

"Well, for one, she is very intelligent, always running around reading or writing something," he said simply "But, also because I can't really see her being unable to do something or not being good at something. It simply doesn't seem possible," Marcus happily took a large spoon of chocolate pudding in his mouth.

"Except Divination," Orion said with a grin "You really weren't kidding when you said you disliked it, did you?"

"I told you so," she shrugged "But, for some reason it seems like most of you got this strange idea about me being perfect, and unmistakable. Which is quite ridiculous," her voice was still a bit rough so she took a sip of her pumpkin juice.

"So are you okay? I mean, considering we heard you last night, screaming…" Black asked hesitantly what everybody wanted to know, obviously since they all now stared at her with interest sparkling in their eyes. Hermione slightly pursed her lips, glancing shortly at Riddle who seemed to know everything already although he didn't even sleep in the same dormitory with the rest of the boys. The bloody git knew everything that was happening all the time.

"I'm… Better," she smiled faintly "It was just a bad dream, after all," Hermione was used to those ever since the war started, but they were rarely as violent as this one was.

"Damn. Just a bad dream? It sounded like you were being tortured or dying, or something even worse," Black commented, but Malfoy nudged him with his arm and threw him a glare, telling him to stop. Orion just nodded and looked apologetically at Hermione.

Even Draco raised his gaze towards Hermione now, expecting some sort of reaction. They were all looking at her as if they expected her to break anytime because of the words Black had said. Even Riddle now openly glared at him, obviously not satisfied with how he tried to deal with the sensitive situation. Cassiopeia slowly let her eyes slide over everyone, trying to determine how will this tense situation end. Then, Hermione did something they didn't expect.

She laughed. It was a bit on the nervous side, but still a laugh.

"Geez, Black I never thought you would be afraid of dreams," she joked, trying to ease the tense situation "And what's with all those careful questions? You all look at me like you expect me to break down and cry this moment. Heck, it was, as I already said, a dream,"

They all seemingly relaxed after that and Black even managed a small smirk on his face. But, Draco didn't seem too convinced with her and continued to look at her with that slightly frowning expression, as if he was trying to read her mind. Quickly diverting her gaze from him she noticed that Riddle wore a similar expression. Hermione sighed and looked down at her plate, which seemed to be the only safe thing to look at.

"Is that so?" she recognized Riddle's voice "Will you then share with us what had you so scared?" he emphasized the last word, making Hermione cringe slightly.

"I… I can't remember, actually," she quickly lied raising her head to meet his dark gaze; unsure why but she after all these years she learned how to listen to her instincts "It's all really fuzzy and dark,"

"Don't push yourself," Draco suddenly said "It's not really important, right? It was just a dream and perhaps it's better for you not to remember it,"

Hermione was slightly confused by his protective tone. He probably didn't want her to tell all of them her nightmare. Besides, the look on his face told her that he didn't really believe that she didn't remember her dream. Apparently, he knew her good enough to know that. She nodded at him, thankful and smiled faintly. He just gave her a strange look and quickly moved his attention back to his plate. Fortunately, Riddle didn't ask for any more explanations and Hermione felt huge relief. But, he did let his eyes wander more than once to the confusing girl across the table.

"So, Hermione, are you any good at dueling?" Avery asked her suddenly "I mean, no offense but your type usually isn't…"

"My type?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Well, the book-loving smart people like you, I meant," he winced slightly, obviously trying hard not to offend her "I mean, Cassie is a disaster and so are some other similar people… Riddle is of course brilliant, but he always is in everything, so he doesn't really count,"

Cassiopeia threw him a dirty look above the edge of her Transfiguration book but didn't comment. Hermione was certain that not even she, herself, studied as much as that girl. Although that was the case, Cassiopeia didn't have brilliant grades, she was good, but not even close to Hermione. Riddle didn't even bother looking at Avery, but Hermione was sure that he kept at least a part of his attention on their conversation.

"I don't really know," she answered honestly "I'm not perfect, but I don't think I'm rubbish either,"

"Oh, I guess then we'll have to wait and see who you'll be paired with," he said, a bit disappointed "Merrythought usually assigns partners to everyone,"

It didn't take long after that for the conversation to switch on some other topics. They, of course, talked about Quidditch and the upcoming match with Ravenclaw. Hermione wasn't thrilled by this topic so she tuned off and kept her mind busy by reciting miscellaneous potion recipes in her head. Everywhere was a good place to practice. On the other side, Draco was lost in his own thoughts, occasionally throwing a glance towards Hermione who was deep in thought and then to Riddle who was openly staring at her, a small frown appearing on his face as if he was trying to solve something particularly difficult. Draco smirked to himself. He was unsure why, but the fact that Bennett could confuse Riddle so much was giving him immense pleasure.

Not too long after the large group of ten, joined by the unavoidable Unna Parkinson, left for their Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

* * *

"Good day, class. My name is Professor Merrythought and I welcome you to your seventh year Defense Against the Dark Arts class," a middle aged woman with a pleasant face welcomed the class "This year, this class will be shared between Houses Slytherin and Gryffindor," many snickering sound were heard from the crowd "We will begin this year with some practical use of everything we learned. For those who don't understand, that means dueling," the woman happily clasped her hands.

"I already assigned some partners earlier today based on your own capabilities. You all know the rules of dueling. No dark curses or anything that could seriously hurt you or your partner, anything else is fair game," she said with a smile and started reading the list.

"Miss Hastings and Miss Parkinson, Miss Collins and Miss Black, Mr. Lestrange and Mr. Rosier, Mr. Riddle and Miss Newell, Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Avery, Miss Bennett," Hermione jumped from her seat when she heard her last name "And Mr. Mallard, Mr. Potter and Mr. Fray, Mr. Weasley and Mr. Black, Miss Rookwood and Miss Valliant, and finally Mr. Thomas and Mr. Finnegan"

Hermione tried to see the faces of the mentioned people. She noticed so many last names from Gryffindor that it made her heart leap in the slight chance to see the faces of her friends and classmates again. What she saw was some red hair, some dark hair and some recognizable laughs. That was how Gryffindor sounded like and she missed it very much.

Riddle was paired with a curly haired Gryffindor who looked so frail and pale that Hermione was surprised she was still standing. But, the firm look on the girl's face told her that Eva Newell was not going to go easy on her enemies. Too bad that she was actually dueling Riddle of all people. Hermione knew he was already quite powerful even at his school days, so she believed that the girl had basically no chances for winning.

Hermione felt just a tad better to see that she was paired with Draco. It might've been ridiculous in any other situation, but since they were stuck here together she felt like she was safer around him. That was probably another foolish notion, but at the moment that didn't matter. Hermione turned around slightly and saw Draco looking at her with a small smirk. He even had the audacity to wave at her and send her another condescending look before looking away and starting a conversation with Abraxas.

Bloody git thought he could defeat her? Well, then he had another thing coming for him…

First pair was Unna and her partner, a tall and intimidating girl with short blonde hair. The duel between them wasn't the most interesting. It only lasted few minutes before Unna got lucky and finally managed to hit the girl with a Stunner and then take her wand. Both girls had terrible aims, sloppy technique and no shields. Not that either of them needed shields considering the fact that none of the hexes ever came focused enough to touch either of them. The spell usually dispersed in the space between them. But, Unna still received pats on the back from the boys. In the end, all that mattered was winning.

Cassiopeia's duel was even shorter. She was so utterly lost in the moment she reached the dueling space that she was barely holding her wand in her hand. The look on her face looked frightened, and Hermione felt a bit sorry for the girl. She was not for a battlefield. Cassiopeia kept her head down as she moved back to the students.

"Don't worry, it'll get better," Hermione could hear Avery telling her.

"No, it's not… I'm really terrible at this," she sighed deeply and the boy tapped her back soothingly.

Hermione was cut off from the conversation as soon as Marcus and Lestrange were on the stage. It was obvious that students were expecting this particular match with great excitement, since the mass of students, both Gryffindor and Slytherin, were all cheering. Lestrange looked as calm as ever and Marcus was smiling cheerfully, though his smile now had a sharper edge to it, making it almost look like a smirk.

They both started with simple spells, both well aimed and deflected on both sides. It was now utterly quiet as everyone watched the duel progressing further, and the both boys using tougher and more complex hexes. They both had strategy and were completely concentrated. That was when Marcus started using nonverbal magic. There was a small gasp around the classroom and even Lestrange looked a bit intimidated by this.

A slicing hex collided with Lestrange's shield making him go a step backwards, his shield dropping for mere seconds. Marcus used this window of opportunity and ended the match after twelve minutes. Even Merrythought was clapping. She congratulated both boys and wrote something on her papers. Marcus grinned to the crowd and Lestrange just shrugged and returned to his previous place.

"How was I?" Marcus asked cheekily, a large grin on his face.

"Good… Great, actually," Hermione said with a smile "I didn't know you can use nonverbal,"

"Just something I picked up last year from my older brother," he shrugged with his smile firmly on its place "Look, its Tom's turn now. I wonder what will happen with him and Eva,"

Both Riddle and the petite girl were standing across each other, their expressions unwavering under the pressure of their glares. Riddle looked as calm and cold as ever but the Newell girl looked positively furious, like she was looking at her biggest enemy. Probably how Hermione looked at him. It didn't look as inconspicuous as she hoped it would.

In contrast to the last match, this one started much more differently. Things were heated and tense with the Newell girl sending complex spells his way from the right beginning. Riddle seemed to have no trouble deflecting them with an easy flick of his wand. Actually, he didn't even look like he was trying too much. The girl furiously attempted to hit him, and he let a few hexes graze his arms just for good measure. Then, after a while, Tom frowned slightly and sent a strong stunner her way. Newell was too busy with the offensive hexes that she completely forgot about her shields.

Scowling, she left the stage angry. Riddle smiled to professor Merrythought and went back to the place where the Slytherin boys were standing.

"Did Newell and Riddle know each other from before?" Hermione suddenly asked Marcus.

"Yes," he just said, not turning her gaze to her and not providing her with a better explanation.

Malfoy and Avery were short but interesting in dueling. Avery won and left Abraxas sulking. Avery tapped his back and grinned, happy about his victory and happy about the fact that Abraxas was proven wrong again. Malfoy shoved him slightly which just made Avery's grin larger.

"Miss Bennett and Mr. Mallard," professor Merrythought called her and Draco's names "You're our new students so I'm interested to see how capable are you. Take you places and begin,"

Hermione now stood some distance away from Draco who was gripping his wand tightly in his hand. She raised her eyebrow at him, happy to see that he was slightly nervous. They both raised their wands and began. Draco's spells were very focused and strong, and Hermione had to keep an advanced shield in front of her most of the time. He even used some hexes that weren't really considered light, but weren't truly dangerous.

Finally relenting in his attack, Hermione lowered her shields and started attacking. Unlike Draco, Hermione's spells were larger and had a bigger chance of hitting him even with his shields. She too wasn't fighting all that nicely. Hermione even used some spells that had yet to be invented in the future, but it didn't really cross her mind while she was dueling.

Sending two more dangerous spells his way, Draco's shields finally crumbled, but before that happened she also sent a third spell just behind the first two. It was a modified stunner that almost clashed with Draco's chest. He avoided it by stepping on the side and quickly raising another shield, making students in the classroom gasp.

It was his turn to attack, and he started using similar technique as she did earlier. He sent two powerful spells in front that damaged her shields and then a weaker one that was supposed to disarm her or stun her. At one point of his relentless attack, Hermione felt her strong shield crumbling. Unfortunately, she wasn't lucky enough to find herself hit with a stunner. Her shoulder was deeply sliced and Hermione could feel the familiar scent of her own blood in the air.

Students around them gasped again, Draco's eyes widening slightly. He wasn't expecting the slicing hex to hit her with such velocity. Hermione took the window of opportunity and nonverbally sent a few offensive spells that sent him up in the air and then in the far away wall of the classroom. He winced slightly as she cast a quick disarming spell on him.

The classroom was completely silent as Hermione stood there with two wands and a large gash on her shoulder. Even professor Merrythought's mouth was slightly open in surprise.

"That was… Surprising, Miss Bennett," she finally said, scribbling something quickly on her notes "But, very well done. It was certainly a splendid duel. Congratulations to both you and Mr. Mallard,"

Hermione then remembered Draco who was still on the ground, his head down. She quickly ran and sat next to him on her knees.

"Mallard are you okay?" she shook his shoulders gently "Please, say you're okay,"

He raised her head up slowly, focusing his grey eyes to her. He then frowned at the pain he was feeling in his back.

"Damn, Bennett… I didn't know you had it in you," he chuckled, but stopped and winced when pain struck him again.

"You're okay, thanks Merlin!" she hugged him abruptly, making him groan in pain a bit. Hermione moved away with an apologetic look in her eyes "You need to get to the Infirmary," she then added seriously.

"I think you should, too," he said "That shoulder wound looks nasty,"

"It's nothing… I'll just get it healed later," she said.

"Oh, don't pull that brave Gryffindor crap on me, Bennett," he said "You're in Slytherin now, grow a sense for self-preservation,"

"Go to hell," she chuckled.

"I'm just one step away,"

The other students just looked at the strange exchange of the students on the floor. Although Hermione heavily protested of being sent to the Infirmary and back to Mrs. Danes, but professor Merrythought insisted, so soon after Hermione found herself sitting on the bed in the infirmary. Her shoulder was bandaged tightly and the bandages on her left hand were changed. Mrs. Danes was very angry when she saw that the wound hasn't healed in the slightest. Its three gashes were still large and open. Hermione just shrugged in respond. She had better things to do than to worry about some minor injuries.

She turned to Draco who was lying on one of the beds, practically his whole chest in white bandages. Hermione bruised him good and broke two ribs along the way, making Mrs. Danes shake her head with obvious disapproval with the girl.

"You know, Bennett, I should thank you," Draco said after a while.

"Yes, because slamming you into a wall is something to be_ really_ grateful of," she commented dryly.

"Well, that's a minus, I'll admit," he smirked "But, I also don't have to go to the rest of the classes today or tomorrow… So, I guess it was worth it,"

Hermione shot him a dirty look.

"And here I thought you were _supposed_ to be smart," she rubbed her shoulder "Enjoy your time here. I hope you are used to speaking to walls," Hermione looked around the empty room around them. It was quite strange that there was actually no other injured students around. Perhaps Mrs. Danes was just that good at being a healer, or perhaps Riddle was intimidating his Slytherins to behave.

"Since I am usually ignored, it'll feel just like home," he joked, but his voice had a bitter edge.

"Just like home," she said, her voice full of fake cheer.

"Don't you owe me an apology, Bennett?" he asked then.

"What for? I won fair and square," she said seriously "It's not my fault you couldn't raise your shields properly,"

"You really think you're better than me at dueling?" he asked, one of his eyebrows up.

"I don't think that, I know that," she raised from her place and walked next to his bed "Besides, I'm not the one half-dead in the Infirmary, am I?"

"You'll see next time, Bennett," he narrowed his eyes slowly "I just went easy on you because you are a girl,"

She nodded with a smirk, not believing one word that left his mouth. There was no chance in hell any Slytherin, especially not Draco Mallard, would ever go easy on someone just because of the person's gender.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Mallard," she turned around and started leaving towards the door "Enjoy your time here, while I have a nice and warm dinner at the Great Hall and get all the compliments for my brilliant dueling skills," she told him before she closed the door behind her.

He shook his head, painfully aware of the numbness in his chest and back. She could be really cruel when she wanted to. Not that it surprised him, she was after all a Slytherin. Draco smirked slightly as he contemplated that thought. Not long after, he fell asleep with nothing but pain and the petite ex-Gryffindor on his mind.

* * *

What do you think is going to happen?... Major plot twist in the next chapter!


	6. The Game Changer

**I feel proud, since this is my first chapter of this length. I usually write chapters that are from 4000 to 6500 words long. This one goes 2000 words above that and it's somewhere around 8700 words long without the notes on the beginning and in the end. So, I did spend quite some time writing this (and ruined my test in latin, but meeeh who cares, right?) and trying to fit everything here perfectly. As promised, there is a big turn at the end of the chapter that will change the whole story completely.**

**I want to send a lot of thanks to my reviewers:**

**Thanks for the Guest who left the review *waves* There are loads of great time-turner stories out there and I'm glad that mine made you like the genre! **

**AMUTOforever305- I was so excited for writing that fighting scene between Draco and Hermione and I also loved it! Also, you'll see much Tom-Hermione interaction in the next few chapters, since they will have some... _Disagreements..._ You'll see when you read it, anyways! So happy you left a review for me and I hope you'll keep on reading! :D  
**

**Cassie-D1- Yep, but remember that was just the beginning of it.. *wink, wink***

**just ana- Your review made me smile so much! When I saw that you check twice a day for updates I decided to write this chapter as fast as I can! So basically this one is especially for you! This chapter will be more action-adventure but you'll see some interaction between Tom and Hermione too! And yeah, I update quite frequently (hence, my grades are falling), but for your sake I'll try to put the dates or something for every chapter! :3**

**varee- Thank you, it means a lot to me that this story seems plausible since it's very much AU! ^^**

**Next chapter is up on Monday, most probably!**

* * *

**Chapter 6: The Game Changer**

"Do you know why I have gathered you here tonight?" the dark haired boy asked with his voice cool and inapproachable by any of the others around him. They glanced around amongst themselves frowning or shrugging, but none of them dared to speak up a word. The room was in a complete silence for a few moments as the dark haired boy slowly paced in front of his little group, as if they were testing his patience by not answering his question.

"No, my Lord," one of them spoke up clearly, but still sounded careful with his words "We would never question your decisions, but we would be honored if you shared that information with us,"

The dark haired boy turned around and looked up to his followers who were all looking to him in expectation. The blond boy who spoke up kept his head slightly down, in respect but also in fear. That was the perfect combination for success. As long as your followers respected and feared you, there was no stopping them. Him.

"I want to know what information have you gathered since our last meeting," he said slowly and resumed his pacing, as if he was pondering on something terribly important. All the other boys fell into silence. He spun around and faced them, his expression as impassive as ever as his dark gaze passed from one boy to another. Silence ensued. The boys didn't even turn around to see each other, not even a shrug, not even a frown, just fear was shared among them.

"Nothing?" he asked with a raised brow, feigning surprise "You cannot give me anything on our two new students that arrived so mysteriously and behave so suspiciously?"

Another longer silence ensued. The other boys already started fidgeting nervously from one leg to another as it continued. The dark haired boy now had a small smirk tugged in the corner of his lips. It wasn't a pretty one and it made the rest of the boys feel like the temperature in the small room fell another few degrees.

"I didn't think this would be such a problem," he said finally "And yet, now I stand corrected… I don't like being corrected, do I, Abraxas?"

"No, my Lord," the blond boy said, his voice barely maintained its tone.

"And can you tell me why is that?" dark haired boy continued, his eyes on one of his faithful followers.

"Because..." the boy hesitated to answer his lord "Because, being corrected means you've made a mistake. Our Lord doesn't make mistakes," he bowed his head ever so slightly more.

"Correct. Mistakes," he spat the word "Are something I do not make. That is why I'll ask just once more, what have you discovered about Mallard and the Bennett girl?"

The information gathered was scarce and wouldn't be useful to him, he realized after the boys told him what they knew. They managed to gather much more on the boy, while the girl, Bennett, remained as evasive as ever. That is something he'll need to change.

"You haven't found anything else on the girl?" he asked, once more, just to be sure his followers haven't let anything about the girl slip their minds. They all just shook their heads at his question. The dark haired boy seemed displeased, but not as displeased as before, because his anger was mainly directed towards that blasted secretive girl who managed to spend whole two weeks in Hogwarts without slipping anything about her in the process. He usually read people and their secrets in the first day, just by asking simple questions. People always loved talking about themselves.

"She is… Different, my Lord," a boy said from the darkness "She doesn't speak of herself or her past and she rarely does anything else but spends time in the library or speaks with Mallard,"

"That is disappointing," he said "Leave. I now need to clean up your mess," his words were angry but his tone was as flat as always as he spoke to them. The boys all internally relaxed for a notch and sighed quietly. He wasn't going to punish them, at least not tonight. As they walked to the door, his voice stopped them once more.

"Don't think I'll forget this, or let it pass," he told them "Keep in mind I know every step you make and every word you say, and I suggest you to be careful if you want to actually finish your final year here,"

With that, the boys quietly slipped out, leaving Riddle alone in the darkness. He glanced towards the window and could see the moon high up in the night sky. It was probably somewhere around midnight and he should get back to Head dormitories. Instead, he stayed there for a couple more minutes, a plan vividly forming in his head. Satisfied, he smiled, but it wasn't something that looked to happy, it actually looked malicious and cold.

If the new girl hoped for a calm final year, he had other plans. She may have escaped Grindelwald and his forces in Europe but she threw herself right in the arms of someone much more powerful, he thought. But, something about her fleeing to Hogwarts because of the war just didn't fit in his head. There was something wrong about her and her friend. And he was going to find out what, really soon.

* * *

Hermione was furiously scribbling on her paper. How could she forget something this important? Almost half of her grade in Ancient Runes depended on the stupid essay, yet somehow it slipped her mind for a whole week before she finally remembered it thanks to Marcus who just started working on his. So embarrassing, she usually started and finished her essays as soon as they were given, and now she had the fight the deadlines and her own tiredness. She was never late for anything, but now here she was in the Slytherin common room at two hours after midnight.

A large stack of books was sitting next to her and she quickly ran through the pages of the open one in front of her, searching for the information she needed. Cursing under her breath and muttering about the ridiculousness and irony of the situation she ran her finger through the table of contents in the second book, still unable to locate her solution.

"You should pay attention to chapter 64 in Valerian's book," a voice said behind her, immediately making her jump from the couch, her wand ready in her hand. Riddle didn't look surprised by her immediate reflexes, he just played with his yew wand between his long fingers.

"I already did, there is nothing on Babylonian runes there," she frowned, her wand not pointed at him anymore but still firmly in her hand as she scanned whatever she remembered about that chapter in her head.

"There is. You just didn't pay enough attention to it," he said confidently and walked over to her books, sitting down on the couch. Hermione turned towards him with suspicion as he shuffled through the pages of Valerian's book. Turning to the page where the sixty-fourth chapter started he turned few more pages and then pointed a paragraph in the middle of a page and turned to her.

Surprised, Hermione sat back down on the couch and tugged some of her curls behind her ear. Her eyes quickly scanned the paragraph. She slightly frowned and pursed her lips while thinking about what she was reading. The paragraph contained just what she needed to finish her essay with a believable and strong theory that is certainly going to get her the highest score and a passing grade (in Hermione's life, meaning an O).

"Right," she nodded and quickly wrote few sentences on her paper. It looked good enough for something written in two in the morning. She rolled her paper with a sigh. He was still there and she knew it, even when she couldn't see him, his powerful magic made the air around him shift. Hermione turned towards him and nodded.

"Thanks… I didn't catch that," she said and dropped the books in her bag "Good night," Hermione prepared herself to leave.

"Actually, I was hoping to speak to you," he said.

So close. Hermione thought to herself. She turned back towards him. He watched her with a strange look on his face, he looked amused by her behavior around him and by her consistent resistance. It was actually a pity he didn't have the time to deal with her earlier.

"About what?" she asked "It's already quite late and I'm tired,"

"Come sit with me," it wasn't a question, it was an order and Hermione certainly didn't appreciate being ordered around. But, she did sit in a chair across him, who was sitting elegantly on the couch. Hermione didn't like that the only thing between them was an expensive-looking wooden table. She put her bag on the table and looked back to Riddle who kept his eyes on her all the time, remembering her movements.

"You owe me a favor," he stated after a few moments "And I wanted to discuss what can you do for me," in the past two weeks, Hermione and Riddle had little interaction except in classes where their opinions often clashed, much to the delight of professors and the dismay of other students who could barely understand what the two of them were discussing.

"What do you want?" she asked, her eyes slightly narrowing as she bit her lip nervously.

"I want a lot of things, Hermione," he said, making her flinch slightly "But from you, specifically, I need something very simple,"

Hermione crossed her arms and looked at him. He was absolutely serious, no sign of his amused self, and that made him look even more like his future counterpart. Hermione already knew that something like this was bound to happen sooner or later but no matter how much she tried to mentally prepare herself for it, she realized she wasn't ready for the pressure. The tension in the room became thick with tension swirling around them, as none of the two spoke. It was more of a battle of wills than anything else. After what seemed an eternity later, Hermione finally pulled her gaze away from his and took a deep breath.

"What, Riddle?" she asked, irritated by his seriousness and his expressionless face. If he was trying to intimidate her into something, it wasn't going to work. Fear wasn't a good motivator for Hermione.

"You don't hide your emotions at all, do you?" he suddenly changed the subject, a small hint of amusement flickering on his face "It's all there on the surface, for everyone to see,"

"So what?" she asked, unsure how to react to his sudden change of demeanor.

"I find it… Refreshing," he smirked, then added in a much more serious voice "It would certainly be interesting…"

"What would?" Hermione was utterly confused by the way that he watched her. Confused but also frightened, because she saw interest in those dark pits. He was calculating something about her in his mind, Hermione realized. Whatever it was she was sure it wasn't going to be anything pleasant.

"Nothing. Go to sleep," he said, with his face pensive "We will talk more about this tomorrow, I am sure,"

Hermione frowned at him. He was so confusing like this, ordering her around one moment and completely ignoring her next. She didn't want to risk anything by staying there any longer than necessary, so she slipped her bag on her shoulder and, keeping her movements as normal as she could so he doesn't think he managed to frighten her, walked away. As she stood on the staircase that led to their dormitories she decided to prove that once more.

"Good night, Riddle," she said and threw him a smirk. Hermione wasn't going to let him win this easily. Recognizing the challenge in her voice he raised her head to look at her and returned the smirk with ease.

"Good night, Hermione,"

Why did he say her name like that?

* * *

"Are you ready for the trials, Hermione?" Unna was jumping happily next to Hermione as they were walking to the DADA classroom. A lot of other students were running around and crowding the hallways, making it hard to reach their destination.

"Hm? Oh, I guess I am," Hermione nodded, but the truth was that she barely spent any time thinking about their practical trials for the month. Her mind was stuck on the conversation she had with Riddle, trying to understand his behavior. Hermione already deduced from classes and from what she knew from before that he wasn't someone who did things if he had nothing to gain from them and he also didn't do things halfway. She was certain that when he said that they were going to talk, it was going to happen. That was why she tried to keep some company at her side all the time.

"Silly me, of course you are," Unna said playfully "You always are. As for me, I will probably have to deal with a low grade, once more. Last year I ended up in a trial room that looked like a frozen cave. It took me hours to solve some puzzles on the way and I just barely defeated some stupid boggarts," she shrugged, but didn't look too worried about it "I just hope I just won't get a trial room with such freezing temperatures this time around," Unna frowned.

"It'll be fine," Hermione said absentmindedly, her thoughts not really focused on what the girl next to her was saying. She really had bigger problems than the DADA practical trials at this moment. The fact that she still had no plan whatsoever how to start or end her mission was bugging her most of the time. The second thing that was torturing her was that Draco seemed to get all cozy and friendly with Riddle's followers, seemingly less and less interested to the plan of destroying him and returning to their own time.

Mallard was, on second thought, quite strange in the last two weeks. Hermione barely had any time to speak with him, and when she would finally catch him on his own, he would find some ridiculous excuse to get away from her. It confused Hermione, and she couldn't help but think that perhaps it was her own fault. But, all boys around her were confusing her at the time and the only person of the opposite gender she could have a normal conversation with was Marcus Rosier.

While Lestrange usually ignored her and everyone else, Abraxas, Black and Avery were friendly enough as classmates but still kept their distance most of the time. The three of them were much closer to Draco than her. Marcus, on the other hand, was always sitting next to her at breakfast, talking and discussing with his mouth full. Riddle, surprisingly, kept his distance for the past two weeks, until last night when he broke the silence between them.

"Hermione, are you listening to me?" Unna snapped her fingers in front of Hermione's face, making her jump a bit in surprise.

"Yeah, sorry… I was just thinking about something," she shook her head slightly.

"You were thinking about someone… I could see it by your eyes," Unna winked and giggled, making Hermione's head snap up "Was it your friend, Draco?"

"What? No!" Hermione yelled at her, making a few younger students look at her with fright "I was thinking about my Ancient Runes essay, if you really want to know," she lied.

"So, you never ever think about you blond friend in a… Friendlier way?" Unna wiggled her eyebrows, making Hermione flush slightly on the cheeks. She really never thought of Draco like that, but the mere suggestion of it was actually making her feel uncomfortable.

"Of course not, we're just friends," Hermione said, her arms crossed on her chest.

"You're not interested in him?" Unna sounded genuinely surprised with Hermione's statement.

"No," Hermione feigned disgust on her face "He's an absolute git to me most of the time, plus he and I are not really friends anyway," she shrugged, her face indifferent.

"Ohh," Unna said as she clasped her hands "Then, you don't mind me try getting… Friendlier with him?"

Hermione thought she would never see that day come. Unna Parkinson blushed slightly and giggled, obviously uncomfortable with what she just said. She was interested in Draco, in a romantic way. Hermione wondered why she hadn't ever noticed that it was happening. Was she that oblivious to people around her?

"Of course not," Hermione said finally "Perhaps you should ask him on out on our Hogsmeade visit," the words left her mouth before she could really stop them or think them through. The possibility of Unna dating Draco meant that they would spend more time together, holding hands, talking and doing all that stuff people in a relationship do together. It could make Unna happier and Draco, too. But, it would also mean that Draco will have less time to talk to Hermione. She decided it wasn't really relevant how she felt about it. They weren't together, they weren't even friends, her opinion hardly mattered to him. Hermione made a decision.

"You think he would accept?" Unna gaped at Hermione.

"Of course. He would be crazy not to accept," Hermione smiled at the happy girl next to her "Now, let's hurry up a bit, we're going to be late for the class,"

Unna nodded with a wide grin and the two of them continued towards the DADA classroom with a fast pace. Upon reaching the large place, Hermione could see that most other students, Slytherins and Gryffindors alike, were all already seated. Unna took her place next to Cassiopeia who was chatting with Avery with a small smile. Hermione dropped her books on her desk, next to Lestrange who was silently gazing upon his book.

Any other day at this class, Hermione would curse the damn fate that made her take the desk next to his. He wasn't talkative or helpful, he never said 'hello' or 'goodbye' to her, but today she was thankful for the usually awkward silence. He was just there, with his brooding, emo aura of darkness, Hermione thought with a frown as she looked at him. He had dark hair, somewhat resembling Riddle's and glacial blue eyes. Apparently, he was one of the most popular guys in the school, but rarely dated.

As she mused about the strange boy next to her, his eyes moved from the book and locked with her own. Hermione snapped her head up and smiled slightly and awkwardly to him.

"Hi," she said, her voice barely higher than a whisper, her hand giving him a small wave.

Lestrange just looked at her with obvious distaste and returned his gaze to the book in front of him with disinterest. Hermione felt herself gape at him. Now she was going to become the one who was weird. It was his fault anyway, it wouldn't kill him to say hello to her. Angry at him and herself for getting caught, she opened her DADA book soundly and started reading the last lesson.

"Welcome students," Merrythought entered the classroom, three minutes later than usual, her good natured smile on her face "This is going to be our first practical trial this year. As you already know, there is a lot depending on how you finish this challenge,"

Some of the students groaned and dropped their heads to the desks in exasperation and irritation. Others smirked confidently and twirled their wands between their fingers with ease. Hermione could clearly see Draco among other Slytherins as he chatted with Abraxas and Orion, seemingly not worried about the trials. Avery was now obviously soothing Cassiopeia who looked positively sick at the mere mention of practical lessons and grades in DADA. But, she looked slightly better when Avery took her hand and smiled at her encouragingly. Hermione shook her head and frowned. She really was as oblivious to others as she thought she was. Looking around through the rest of the classroom she caught someone's dark gaze.

Riddle was watching her from his desk with amusement. He must've seen her reaction to Cassiopeia and Avery. Hermione just scowled at him and turned back to her own desk. Lestrange as impassive as ever at her side, she switched her attention back to professor Merrythought.

"As a precaution, you will be going into the trials room in pairs," she continued "I paired you off with your own housemates, because inside the room you'll need someone you can completely rely on. I have the list here, so when I call your name and the name of your partner, you will enter that door there together," Merrythought showed them a large, wooden door on the side of the room Hermione never really noticed before. It was probably under invisibility charms so that the younger students don't get stuck.

"The door will transport you to one of the trial rooms I've created. If you ever feel like you cannot defeat something or get in any kind of serious trouble, you are to use the Auxilia pendants I am going to give you. One per every pair, so remember to keep contact with your pair in order for the pendant to transport you back to the classroom," Merrythought displayed a silver chain with a red pendant.

"Once you get to your trial rooms, you will have the task of finding the artifact held by a more serious enemy. The artifact is easily recognizable and will work as a Portkey," she clasped her hands excitedly "Remember, light will always keep you on the right way," Merrythought cryprically added before moving back to her table and taking her list.

Gryffindors went through first, two at the time, though the door. Hermione was now starting to feel worried by everything that was going to happen. She bit her lip slightly as she watched the last of Gryffindors leave into the darkness of the trial room. Now, she cursed herself for not listening to what Unna was telling her before the class.

"Scared?" a cold voice asked her from behind. Hermione didn't really have to turn around to know who was speaking to her.

"No," she said, not explaining herself any further.

"Of course not," he now moved to stand next to her "Nothing ever seems to scare you, Hermione, does it?"

Hermione cocked her head slightly on the side to look at him. He had his hands in his pockets, his eyes looking at the door. Hermione had a few moments to look at his profile, his dark hair and his dark blue eyes. His personality clashed with his angelic looks, making it harder for Hermione to think straight. It wasn't fair that someone with so much darkness inside him looked so beautiful.

"A lot of things scare me, Riddle, but I refuse to let those things dictate how I live my life," she answered, lowering her gaze back in front of her.

"Fear is a great motivator for most people," Riddle said.

"Not for me… It just makes me fight even more," Hermione told him calmly, hoping he would get the message. He looked down at her, and Hermione could literally feel his gaze hovering over her face. He seemed to be ready to counter that statement with his own, but before he could do that, professor Merrythought cut him.

"Mr. Riddle, you will join Mr. Mallard in the trial room," Merrythought gave the Auxilia amulet to Draco. Riddle moved next to him, and they nodded to each other before opening the door and disappearing into the darkness. Hermione sighed deeply. Poor Draco was once more stuck with Riddle, and he certainly wasn't going to be happy about it when he returns. Hermione and he will have to speak after the trials, whether he likes it or not.

Abraxas and Marcus went in next, then Avery and Unna, leaving only Orion, Lestrange, Cassiopeia and Hermione in the DADA classroom. Hermione was getting restless since Merrythought was taking her time in announcing the couples. Cassiopeia was sweating in the corner, looking even worse than before while the boys all looked relaxed, if a bit pensive and quiet.

"Miss Bennett," Merrythought announced her name exactly twenty minutes after the first pair went inside the trial room "You will go in with Mr. Lestrange,"

Hermione flinched at her words and scowled as Lestrange walked over to professor Merrythought and took the Auxilia amulet out of her hands, not even giving Hermione a look. He stood in front of the door, waiting as Hermione walked over next to him. He was really tall, even taller than Riddle by good two or three inches, Hermione realized. As soon as they were both in the position exactly in front of the door, they swung open. Same as before, it was seemingly just thick darkness. Taking a deep breath, she felt a hand push her slightly inside. Surprised, Hermione and Alistair Lestrange felt the strange feeling of traveling by Portkey twist their bodies and minds, as it transported them to their trial room.

They both managed to keep their footing as they reached it. Hermione looked around, seriously worried about the looks of the place around her. It looked like a rain forest of some kind, tropical and hot with a lot of exotic looking plants and trees. There was a faint buzz in the air from the insects, but Hermione couldn't see any immediate danger around them.

Lestrange was standing a few meters ahead, his wand at the ready in his hand as his eyes carefully passed the surroundings. He turned back towards Hermione who was still busy gaping around at the magnificent and intricate details professor Merrythought managed to create using her magic. It was almost impossible how real it all seemed to her, the sounds, the smells and the hot and humid air around them.

"There's a path we can follow here," Lestrange pointed at the ground. There was a faint, barely visible path beneath their feet. Hermione looked at him and nodded. From her cloak, she pulled out her wand and readied it in front of her.

They walked for few long minutes in silence. No enemies ever came in front of them and Hermione was starting to feel more and more anxious, her nerves jumping on very sound around them. Lestrange seemed to be calm as ever, but there were some beads of sweat forming on his forehead from the high temperature. It was hard for Hermione to concentrate under those conditions so she continued frowning. When Lestrange suddenly came to a halt, Hermione bumped into his back. He turned his head towards her with a menacing frown and she just raised her hands as if to explain it wasn't on purpose.

"The path splits here," he said as he turned back his attention at his feet.

Hermione looked down to the ground, noticing that it was no longer an option to continue going forward. The path was now split onto left and right. Hermione frowned and looked to the left side, then to the right. They were identically inconspicuous. Trees and large plants along the road, as far as the eye can see.

"Perhaps we should split," Lestrange said "That way we could investigate both sides faster,"

"No," Hermione disagreed "It wouldn't be safe to do that,"

"I didn't really see you as a type who easily gets scared, Bennett," he said casually, his demeanor cold.

"I'm not scared, Lestrange," she said with a hiss "I just don't think we should split. Professor Merrythought clearly said that this was an assignment where partners will have to rely to each other in order to pass,"

"I don't trust you," he suddenly said "I don't see how I'm supposed to rely on you for anything,"

"The sentiments are mutual," she said dryly "But that doesn't change the fact that this assignment was given to us to finish as a team, not one by one,"

"We will just waste time and spend more time in this hellish place," Lestrange looked around, not very happy with the high temperature and the thick and wet air around them.

"Yes, but at least no one will get hurt," she pointed out "We only have one of those necklaces and that's why we must keep close. What if one of these paths has something dangerous ahead? What will the side without the necklace do? Run for his life?" Hermione asked.

Lestrange didn't seem too happy for the fact that he was going to spend more time with her, not if there was even a slight chance of avoiding it. But, he was smart and he knew that it wouldn't be a great plan for them to go separate ways. It was already strange enough that they had no enemies up to this point. He wasn't going to test his luck by not following orders given by their professor before they entered the room.

"Are we going left or right?" Lestrange finally asked, not truly looking forward to their team work.

"I would pick right," Hermione said with no hesitation.

"Why right?" he frowned only slightly.

"I have this strange feeling that it's the way we should be going," she answered, not really understanding her own words either "Come on, we should go before something bad happens. I really, really don't like this crossroad,"

Suppressing a shiver, Hermione watched as Lestrange nodded and turned towards the side she chose. She was actually quite glad and surprised that he trusted her at least that much, because if the roles were switched she would certainly ask more questions before complying with his requests. He was always walking in front of her, no matter how much she tried to switch with him. The Auxilia necklace was hanging around his neck loosely as he kept his calmness even in the terrible conditions they were facing.

As they reached a large clearing, circled by large trees around it, Lestrange raised her hand up, stopping Hermione a step behind him. The silence was complete with an occasional sound that came from the wind that shuffled through the trees. Hermione noticed something strange stuck on her shoe. Focusing a bit better on it she realized it was a spider's net. Raising her head she looked to her left and to her right to find nothing unusual with the forest. On the far side across the clearing there was a small passage through the trees. That was where their path continued.

"It's darker than before," Lestrange said, pointing his wand up.

"Well, it's probably getting late… We've been walking for some time now and…"

"Bennett, shut up and look," Hermione stopped talking and raised her gaze up. She gasped in surprise. The whole sky was blocked by thick woven of white spider net. Hermione could see the shadows of the spiders that were moving quickly across the net. They were big.

"Acromantulas," Hermione said quietly, feeling that Lestrange froze beside her.

"Meaning," he said using her quiet tone "Big spiders,"

"Precisely," Hermione confirmed.

"Do you think we could reach the other side without them noticing us?" Lestrange asked.

"We really don't have much choice, do we?" Hermione retorted.

"No, we don't," he confirmed "So we better get going," Hermione wholeheartedly agreed with a nod. She didn't like spiders, but Lestrange seemed to fear them, although he did his best not to show it.

The two of them slowly started progressing through the large clearing, spiders hanging over their heads like a constant warning. DADA trials were not only battling creatures, as many liked to believe, it was also surviving and finding different ways to solve a situation. Unfortunately, Hermione doubted they would actually manage to pass without battling anything along the way.

With that pessimistic thought, she felt stepping on something crunchy. Looking down at her shoes, Hermione positively felt like cursing something. It looked like an egg of sorts and now its contents were splashed all over her leg, up to her knee. It wouldn't be such an issue with the slime and dirt that was now stuck to it, what was now making Hermione's heart speed up for a notch was the fact that she could no longer see the shadows of the spiders moving above their heads. Lestrange's hand was now gripping her wrist more firmly, to the point it hurt and was probably going to leave a bruise behind. But, now they had bigger issues.

"Bennett?" he asked quietly.

"Yes, Lestrange?" she pursed her lips.

"They're coming," he answered.

"I know,"

There was one more second of peace and complete silence. Then, all hell broke loose. Spiders glided from thin threads to the ground and surrounded the two of them easily. Acromantulas were large, much more massive than normal spiders. Most were black but some of them actually looked like albino acromantulas, which were very rare. Lestrange was keeping his wand up, but paralyzed with fear or shock, or both, he did nothing to try and fend the nasty beasts off.

Hermione took her wrist out of his frozen hand and immediately started firing curses. She desperately tried to remember the spell Harry used in their second year when they defeated Aragog and his family of Acromantulas. But, she couldn't. Firing out slicing hexes and some curses that probably bordered Dark, Hermione couldn't do much more than just fend them off. Lestrange was still trying to recover from his fear. Two larger acromantulas started reaching towards him, but Hermione raised a barrier that blew them backwards.

"Come on, Lestrange," she yelled "I can't do this on my own," Hermione threw an Incendio curse at a large acromantula that was reaching her.

He half way turned towards Hermione who was surrounded by spiders from all sides. Her frizzy hair was full of white threads and her arms were bloody from scratches. One of the bigger spiders jumped forward and pierced the skin of her shoulder deeply with its large teeth. Hermione only felt the pressure of it, since her adrenaline was working full-time pumping through her veins. It was going to hurt like hell later, she knew that.

Lestrange finally managed to wake up, only seconds before Hermione's strong barrier dispersed into thin air. He raised his wand and used a spell that made Hermione smile.

"Arania Exumai," he blasted a large spider far backwards before turning towards a dozen other spiders ahead of him. Now that Hermione remembered the spell, she finally managed to make some progress with her own group of enemies. Quickly, the spiders were either dead or they retreated back onto their lair above Hermione's and Lestrange's head.

Hermione was bloody and full of white strings and scratches along her skin. The large gash on her shoulder was now beginning to hurt seriously as she moved towards Lestrange. The look on his face was calm and cold, like nothing happened, but by the look of his clothes and by the scratches along his face and hands, it was obvious he was anything but. Even his dark hair looked disheveled and unruly, instead of perfectly combed.

"Let's leave before they regroup and attack again," Hermione said, frowning slightly as waves of pain started choking her. It hurt so much that she started biting the inside of her cheek, unsatisfied until she felt the metallic taste of her own blood in her mouth.

"You're hurt," Lestrange said. It wasn't fair that she was halfway to grave and he still didn't even sound like he just battled a dozen large acromantulas.

"I'm alive," she answered with a smirk "Besides, you can't really heal this here, not until we reach the end of the trial and get back to the Infirmary,"

"We could use the Auxilia necklace and get back," Lestrange offered but Hermione shook her head.

"No, not after we survived this. I'll be fine, trust me, I've had worse,"

Lestrange nodded and they started walking towards the way their path continued. Lestrange didn't want to talk about it, Hermione didn't ask. They both walked in silence, their own problems on their minds. Hermione couldn't think about much more than the terrible pain in her shoulder that made her grit her teeth and bite the inside of her cheek as the adrenaline was slowly leaving from her body. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was also surprised that Lestrange had a reaction like that with the acromantulas. Everyone had their own fears and phobias, but people like Lestrange always seemed like they were fearless. It was same with Riddle, she thought.

"This is it," Lestrange stopped and immediately stopped Hermione's thoughts. She looked at the large building with confusion. It seemed to be a temple made out of stone, very old and very ruined. The door in front of them looked very straightforward to use as an entrance. There were ornaments carved around it, a type of tribal runes Hermione recognized only vaguely from her books. As the pair neared the door, she could hear Lestrange cursing very colorfully.

"I knew it couldn't be this easy," he muttered as he moved to the side, letting Hermione see what caused his irritation. It was a puzzle based on runes. It was made from seven concentric circles that moved from left to right as Hermione turned them.

"Tell me you know how to solve this," Lestrange muttered.

"It doesn't seem to be too complex," Hermione said pensively as she traced the runes with her finger "We need to arrange the runes so that they make a sentence, reading from up to down. There are ten runes on the first ring, nine on the second and so on,"

"Can you translate them?" he asked.

"I think so," she muttered "This one means Gold, and this one carries the meaning of Night… Yes, I think I've got them all covered,"

"Good, arrange them, then," Lestrange said.

"Yes, the only problem with that is that there are at least hundreds of possible combinations if not even more," Hermione looked up at him.

"Is there any rune there that represents Light?" Lestrange suddenly said.

"Umm… Yeah, there's one in the first ring, why?" Hermione asked.

"Professor Merrythought said something about light and that it will always lead us to the right way," he said with a shrug "And, if you remember, there was much less light in the clearing where we met the spiders. Actually, it was almost as if the night has fallen,"

"You're right," Hermione nodded "Oh wait, I just remembered something I need to try,"

Hermione started turning the rings with and occasional stop so that she can check her progress so far. Her fingers worked quickly around the large rings at the center of the door. Lestrange was looking at what she was doing and regretting slightly that he gave up on Ancient Runes in his fourth year. After a few moments, Hermione clicked all the rings into their place. She stood up and took a step backwards. Nothing happened.

"Why is nothing happening?" she asked with her hands on her hips, an irritated air tensing around her.

"Perhaps it needs…" a loud screech resounded through the forest "Time,"

The door opened slowly, stone door brushing soundly on the stone floor. Hermione and Alistair Lestrange peeked into the darkness as the stale air whooshed beside them. They looked at each other and nodded, taking a step inside together. This small move made the torches on the side of the temple to light up, revealing a majestic stone ruin.

"What sentence did you arrange the runes in?" Lestrange asked.

"It's something I've read once in a text about tribal runes. It's a proverb that says 'Light shines brightest in a heart of darkness', or something along those lines," Hermione shrugged slightly, surprised to see a faint admiration in his eyes.

They walked through what looked like a large hallway, massive stones stuck out of the walls fully decorated with runes. It was quite dark with the only light coming from the fired torches. Hermione wanted to stop there and spend some more time investigating what secrets they may hold, but unfortunately she knew that they had a trial to finish and a grade to earn, not by translating runes but by fighting and using their survival skills.

As they neared the center of the room, they both noticed a small box, which could easily fit in her palm, laid on a pretty but damaged pedestal of stone. It was made from some dark red wood, decorated with thin silver strings and it obviously didn't belong in the place. Hermione glanced towards Lestrange who was frowning at the box, like it was their biggest enemy.

"It must be our artifact," Hermione decided "That means we've finished our trial, right?" she wanted him to say 'yes' so badly, but she knew better than to believe it would be so easy.

"I don't know," he admitted "The box doesn't seem right. It feels…"

"Sinister, wrong," she said with a nod "I don't like how it buzzes with magic. It's unnatural,"

"I agree. Let's not touch it for now," he said "But we should see whether there is any other way out of here,"

They walked through the narrow room at the end of the long hallway. Neither of them could see the entrance from here and there was certain coldness in the air that made them both feel uneasy. The temperature changed too suddenly from the outside to the inside of the temple. In truth, there were truly no other things in the room that even remotely looked like their artifact.

"There's nothing here," Lestrange said from her side "Just piles of stone and rubble,"

"Nothing here, either. I don't think we have any other choice but to see what's with the box,"

Lestrange nodded uneasily and they both glanced towards the sinister looking object on the pedestal. They both looked at it intently, but neither of them actually tried to touch the wooden box. Hermione could see from her peripheral vision that Lestrange was ready to touch the necklace around his neck even on the faintest sign of danger. Hermione couldn't blame him, she was eager to get back to Hogwarts too, her shoulder causing her pain and making it much harder to think.

"I'll open it," Hermione said after some time "But, be ready to activate the Auxilia pendant if anything unplanned happens," she took a deep breath.

Hermione took a step forward, frowning slightly as she let her fingers hover above the wooden box. The strange magic prickled with the wound on her left palm that still hadn't healed in the slightest. Her wand was ready in her other hand for whatever could happen. She glanced towards Lestrange one last time who was keeping his fingers around the pendant, his wand also at the ready in his left hand.

Hermione let her fingers touch the lid of the box gently. She gasped at the magic that so suddenly enveloped her. It was alluring and powerful, and Hermione didn't want to ever let go. The thin silver strings moved as she touched them and the box opened with a small screech. Her heart was beating soundly in her chest as she peeked inside the box. On the red pillow in the inside of the box there was a shard of glass.

"What is it?" Lestrange asked from her side.

"It's a shard of glass," Hermione said, making him frown "It doesn't really look that special,"

"Can you feel anything coming from it?" Lestrange inquired not daring to come near the box.

"Nothing," Hermione said "I can't sense any kind of magical imprint on it. Perhaps I should touch it?" she murmured her question. It certainly looked like a simple piece of broken glass, but it had a certain seductive streak that made Hermione crave to take it in her hands.

"Be careful, it could be dangerous," Lestrange warned.

"What's the worst that can happen?" Hermione asked with a snort. She didn't wait for an answer and she took the shard into her left palm. Now she could feel magic humming gently inside of the glass. Looking more intently at it she could see her own reflection. It wasn't just a piece of glass anymore, it was mirror shard.

"Bennett," Lestrange said with a tone of warning "Give me your hand, immediately,"

Hermione didn't move, she kept looking at the depths of the mirror in front of her. She could see things in there, her friends, her family, they were all alive inside the mirror. Her smile widened as she watched the small shard in her palm.

"We need to go," Lestrange took the box in his hands and snatched Hermione's elbow, making her head jerk up. They were surrounded by something dark and she could feel the temperature in the room lowering more and more with every passing second.

"Open the box, Lestrange," Hermione ordered. She pushed the shard back inside the wooden box, sad to see that the mirror has once more just a simple piece of glass.

"I am going to use the Auxilia pendant, Bennett," Lestrange warned "Unless, you know the Patronus charm, since I never managed to master it,"

"Why would we need a Patron…" Hermione's words were cut off by an unholy shriek. Three Dementors were now standing in front of them. The Dementors were as disgusting as ever and made Hermione shiver with fear, but Lestrange on her side didn't seem to be moved by the creatures.

"Are you going to use it, Bennett?" he asked her as the three floating figures neared them.

"I have trouble finding a happy memory to use," she said dryly "You know, since we're on the brink of death and all that,"

"Now is not the time for your humor," he commented "Use it, or I'll use the pendant,"

Hermione pulled out the memory of her sitting at the Gryffindor table in the morning with Harry and Ron next to her. They were younger, they were happy and they laughed wholeheartedly. Feeling a strange but familiar warmth inside her, Hermione raised her wand towards the Dementors who were already gliding too close to Lestrange.

"Expecto Patronum," she said with a light smile hovering on her lips. The light engulfed the room and she nodded towards Lestrange. He seized her wrist and activated the Auxilia pendant that shone with red light. The last thing she remembered was the pain in her shoulder as darkness engulfed them away.

* * *

"Bennett? You alive?" Lestrange was standing above her as she lied on the wooden floor of the DADA classroom. Her head was fuzzy and she had trouble focusing her eyes on anything in the room. It was too light.

"Barely, Lestrange," she groaned "What happened?" Hermione could feel the pain in her shoulder and she raised her hand and passed her fingers through her hair. With a frown she entangled some spider web out of it.

"We transported here using the Auxilia pendant after you used the Patronus charm to defeat the Dementors," he said.

"Where is everyone?" Hermione suddenly realized they were completely alone in the classroom. It was still day outside and she was sure that their DADA class still hasn't ended.

"I don't know," he admitted "I just woke up,"

Hermione rose with a painful sigh from the floor and onto her wobbly legs that felt like they were going to break beneath her. Lestrange did nothing to help, he kept his arms crossed across his wide chest and seemed to be deep in thought. Her uniform was in a terrible condition and there was slime, dirt, spider web and blood all over her. Her partner wasn't in a much better condition, there were scratches on his face that were still open and his dark hair was more disheveled than ever.

"Let's go. You need to get to the Infirmary," he finally said as he glanced over to Hermione. She nodded and took a deep breath, realizing that getting to the Infirmary was easier said than done.

The doors to the classroom opened with a loud bang. Both Hermione and Lestrange turned around to find Unna Parkinson, trying to catch her breath. Her hair was a mess also, her uniform in ripped on a few places. She probably returned not too long ago from her own trials, Hermione realized as she watched her. The girl on the door raised her head towards Lestrange and her.

There were tears in her puffy, red eyes and some of them are falling down her cheeks leaving trails and ruining her pretty face. Her cheeks were tinged with red from running, or crying or probably both. Unna opened her mouth to say something but just released something that sounded distinctly like a scream of exasperation.

"Hermione," her voice was breaking and shaking as she spoke "Hermione, something terrible has happened,"

Lestrange, who was in a better physical condition, came next to the crying girl and helped her stand straight. Hermione managed to walk a few short steps to come nearer to Unna who was still sobbing.

"Unna, calm down," Hermione said soothingly, her own heart speeding up at the fact that something wrong was happening and she didn't know what.

"I can't, Hermione," the girl's face was in her palms as she muffled her own words and cries "They're dead…"

Hermione could feel the heart in her chest tighten a few notches. She took a deep breath and bit her lip. Something bad was happening ever since they started the trials, Hermione knew there was something that didn't really fit in with the trial rooms. They felt wrong, everything felt wrong when they were transported. And the box… The glass… Hermione looked up to Lestrange whose face gave off nothing.

"A pair from Gryffindor is dead and another girl from their House is too," she said, her face even redder and her tears falling even more than before "And, and…" Unna tried to say something more but her sobs stopped her and she clutched her arms around Hermione's neck, stifling her tears in the frizzy hair.

Hermione patted her on her back soothingly and whispered nice things in her ears for a few moments, while Lestrange just watched from the side. After what seemed like an eternity later, the crying was slowed down and Unna was now breathing deeply. Her hands were still firmly around Hermione's neck and her face was still puffy and red. She didn't speak anything and Hermione gently brushed her back, trying to calm her down.

Suddenly, Unna pulled out from the hug and looked straight at Hermione's eyes.

"It was Grindelwald, Hermione "Unna said with a voice full of certainty "He tried to kill us all and he managed in some cases and he…" her eyes filled with tears once more.

"Did anyone else get hurt, please tell me Unna," Hermione pleaded with a strange look on her face.

The other girl nodded and brushed her tears with her sleeve, refusing to look Hermione in the eyes.

"Who, Unna? You need to tell me who else was hurt by Grindelwald,"

"It's Draco," the girl said "Draco's dying Hermione. He's dying and they can't do anything about it! "

Unna dropped on the floor in sobs. Hermione felt a tear of her own gliding down her cheek.

* * *

**A cliffie...! You'll have to wait and see whether Draco will survive or not... Also, I can just hint something about the tragedy that happened with their trials: it's not all over with the mirror shard or with people dying. Big revelations that will enlighten everything that happened in this chapter and answer some questions about Draco and his own agendas! Till next time, R&R!**

_-Daianira_


	7. Dangerous Liaisons

**A/N: I see I've got you guys worried for Draco... Fret not thyself! I believe that he'll live, but until he awakens, it is now time for some Tom/Hermione bickering, yelling and fights for domination. As always, thanks for everyone who followed the story and for all those who added it on their favorites list.**

**A lot of gratitude to my reviewers: **

**~The the anonymous guests who liked the story! **

**~Life-is-rolling-keep-on-going - thank you, and I promise you'll eventually see some Dramione moments!**

**~Cassie-D1 and Sara animal - I wouldn't dare kill Draco... Yet! I have some interesting ideas for him, so don't worry!**

**~just ana - thanks for the ultra long review and I'm glad you enjoy the story and the characters! Good luck on your anatomy test! ^^**

**~varee - I completely agree but I needed some reaction that would leave a mark on readers. I have no intentions of making Hermione sob and cry in the corner, so she is more anger-driven in this chapter. You know, since she's the type who always wants to save everyone and when she realizes she can't always save everyone it has a negative effect on her. I'll try and keep her as OC as I can, but I also will try and make her mature through the story.**

**You'll might have to wait until Saturday for the next chapter since I have a lot of things to finish for school this week. If I, by any chance, get the chapter earlier, I'll certainly post it!**

* * *

**Chapter 7: Dangerous Liaisons**

Death was such a strong force. It wasn't really something you could fight against or something you could call an enemy, it just was. It wasn't really a problem either, but it was too violent to be called solution. And yet, people still tried to evade it, to flee from it and defeat it. They try fighting it every day, and yet none have ever succeeded. No matter what they did in their lives, how they behaved, every person in the world ended up the same. It was sad, it hurt and it made faith and hope disperse into air.

Hermione could feel a small lump of anger evolving in her stomach. Simultaneously, there was a strange feeling that grew along with her anger and it felt sour and made her feel hopeless. That was a dangerous combination. Anger and sadness were practically a recipe for a tragedy. Fortunately, Hermione was someone who liked to think logically over thinking with her heart. For that, she was immensely thankful, because if that wasn't the case she would've broken down next to Unna in the DADA classroom. But she didn't break down. She ran out of the room before Lestrange could stop her, before she could actually let her emotions roam free. A clear head was the only thing that could save her at that moment. It was also the only thing that could help Draco.

Sobbing in a corner, Hermione knew from experience, wasn't productive. It just made you feel guiltier about the choices you've made, it made you remember all the mistakes and all the wrong choices that led to the tragedy. Tears were just liquefied defeat. Defeat meant death, and that was just not an option, not if she had any say in that.

Pushing open the Infirmary door, Hermione entered with a confident step and looked around. Professor Merrythought was discussing something in the corner with professor Dumbledore and they both looked serious and worried. Mrs. Danes was standing on the side and following their discussion with a bloody piece of cloth in her hands.

_It could be his blood, he could be dead right now. What if you're too late?_

Hermione shook her head sternly and walked into the room with her head high watching the beds as she passed by them. There were students she recognized in those beds, they were either in pain or sleeping, their clothes and faces bloody and dirty. Hermione recognized Avery and Black were asleep in two beds. They were still breathing.

"Miss! You have to leave immediately!" Mrs. Danes yelled at her "We are having an emergency, it's not the time for visits!" Professor Merrythought and professor Dumbledore turned towards her.

"Where's Draco?" she asked, her voice strong but still a bit shaky as she looked menacingly at Mrs. Danes. It didn't matter she was a Healer, it only mattered that she stood on her way. Mrs. Danes looked over to the professors, asking for permission.

"Miss Bennett, please sit down and let Mrs. Danes see to your injuries," professor Merrythought said in a gentle voice "Everything is going to be fine,"

They were lying, and it even sounded like a lie, they couldn't even bother to make it sound believable. Hermione's eyes narrowed and she crossed her hands on her chest, ignoring the stabbing pain in her shoulder.

"No, it isn't going to be fine, don't lie to me professor," she said angrily "I know that three students died today because of Grindelwald. That doesn't sound '_fine_' to me,"

Merrythought flinched at her words and her eyes fell to the ground. Somewhere deep in her head, Hermione knew that it wasn't her fault, but since she was the closest person she had to blame, her anger just vented on her. The DADA professor took a deep and shaky breath as Dumbledore tapped her soothingly on her back.

"You're right, Miss Bennett," professor Dumbledore said "Nothing about losing young people to war is 'fine', but pointing fingers at our own people will not bring the dead to life nor will it bring peace back into your heart,"

Hermione averted her eyes slightly, she crossed her arms over her chest in a sharp gesture. She knew Dumbledore was right, but that didn't make the situation easier, nor did it made her feel better. It just added some guilt on the list of mistakes she made. It was actually much easier to blame the whole tragedy at hand at professor Merrythought. She was the one who created the trial room, the one who didn't check up on the artifacts before sending students in. Of course, no one actually expected Grindelwald to attack students, but it still didn't mean professor Merrythought took all precautions before sending twenty students to face death.

"Where is Draco, professor?" she asked, choosing the least risky option.

"Young Mr. Mallard is on the last bed, down the left," professor Dumbledore answered "He has been unconscious ever since he was brought in,"

Instead of replying, Hermione murmured a 'thank you' and ran to the last bed on the left side, passing by three bodies that were covered by a thin, white sheet. A light chill passed down her spine and she averted her gaze away from the dead students. Draco was lying in his bed, deathly pale, red scratches on his face even more prominent. His lips were dry and his hair was damp and disheveled as he lied there. It looked like he was already dead, but the light raising of his chest proved that there was still some life left inside of him.

Hermione sat on his bed and took one of his hands into hers. It was deathly cold and she suppressed a shiver. She furiously glared at him, hoping that she could make him wake up just by being angry at him. It wasn't ever supposed to happen like this. Why was everyone dying around her? It was just too much to take at once. Just a bit more than two weeks ago she lost her entire life, her family and friends, her home. Now, she was losing her enemy and she felt angry because of it? The world was getting crazier by the minute for Hermione. When she accepted the mission from McGonagall, Hermione was more-less aware of the miniature chances of her survival. She could accept that, if there was a slight chance of destroying the Dark Lord in his early stages, Hermione would accept to sacrifice herself. But, she never bargained on other people's lives. Draco's untimely arrival made things much harder. Even though they weren't friends, she could feel like they weren't enemies either. Losing that small thread of familiarity that was left from her old life felt terrifying and unimaginable at that moment.

"Do you think he'll wake up?" Hermione asked, feeling Dumbledore's presence behind her.

"I do not know that, Miss Bennett," he calmly answered, which made her even more irritated.

"But, he'll live, right? He's too bloody stubborn not to," Hermione asked, although she knew the answer.

"Do you wish me to tell you the truth, Miss Bennett, or do you wish for a lie that would give you hope, only to crush it when the truth comes out?" he asked honestly.

"I don't know what I want," she said with a frown "I want to go back home, but I also want to finish what I came here for. I want to save him and keep him here so I don't feel so alone but I also think he doesn't deserve to stay only because I'm too selfish to let the last part of my old life go," Hermione took a deep breath "I want him to live, but it seems the only reason for that is my own selfish nature,"

"You're not selfish, Miss Bennett," Dumbledore said "You're just feeling alone and powerless because you never prepared yourself for this, you never believed that fate would actually do something as cruel and as unlikely and throw you back in a place so different from your own, with a mission many would deem impossible,"

"How long do you think he has left?" she asked, her face not giving away anything of her inner thoughts.

"Nobody can know that. The curse he was hit with is Dark and terrible," Dumbledore said with a sad sigh "It drains and tortures the body until the mind and soul can't take it any longer. Then it all shuts down on its own, just so it can escape the pain,"

"Is there no hope?" she asked finally "Isn't there any brilliant solution we could use, or some impossible-to-obtain plant needed to create a potion?" her voice sounded both angry and exasperated at the same moment.

"I'm afraid not, Miss Bennett. We can do nothing except ease the pain to some point," he said, the look on his face pensive "I think he would also appreciate you spending some more time here with him… It could make him feel more at ease with what is happening,"

"Nothing makes death easier," Hermione said with a shook of her head.

"No, we can never truly find comfort in death," he agreed "But it may bring some peace to his mind and to you,"

"I doubt that," she murmured "Do you know what happened, how Grindelwald managed to do… This?"

"He used the artifacts that were supposed to be used as Portkeys," professor Dumbledore said grimly "They were charmed with dark spells. Upon touching the artifact, his followers appeared and attacked in some of the trial rooms, though somewhere he sent other creatures to finish the job,"

Hermione nodded. That was what she felt around the wooden box and the mirror shard in that temple. It was supposed to kill them, her and Lestrange.

"If I may ask, what did you encounter on your trial, Miss Bennett?" Dumbledore asked.

"Acromantulas, a whole lair, and three Dementors," she answered "Acromantulas were mostly defeated by Lestrange and I took care of the Dementors before he activated the Auxilia pendant,"

"Strange," he murmured with a thoughtful expression.

"What is, professor?" Hermione turned to him, a frown formed on her face.

"None of the other students used the Auxilia pendant, I wonder why not," he said "The only reason they were saved was Mr. Riddle's intervention,"

"What did Tom Riddle do?" she asked with a flash of anger passing in her eyes "He was Draco's partner on the trials,"

"Indeed. Mr. Riddle brought Mr. Mallard in using Apparition," he frowned "Then, he somehow managed to locate the coordinates of the rest of the trials rooms, I suppose from professor Merrythought's list, and found all the students and Apparated them back,"

"How did he Apparate on the school's grounds?" Hermione asked with confusion. Something like that wasn't possible.

"He didn't. He Apparated between the Portkey locations of the trial rooms and then managed to use his own Auxilia pendant to come back to the classroom," Dumbledore explained "Quite an ingenious solution. Unfortunately, by the time he reached some of them, they were already badly wounded,"

"But he wasn't hurt, was he?" she asked, already aware of the answer.

"I believe he was in a fair enough state, if a bit bruised," he confirmed "May I ask what do you intend to do concerning young Mr. Riddle?"

"I have a plan, but right now the… Circumstances are not good for me to start with it," Hermione answered "I need to deal with some other things before I start that,"

"Understandable," Dumbledore nodded "If you need me, I will be staying in my office,"

"Of course, thank you professor," Hermione nodded at the professor.

The room was eerily quiet after he left and Hermione was left with only her thoughts as company. There had to be a way for her to save him. It didn't matter it was for the selfish reasons, if he lived he could eventually find a way to return back to their time, get his life back. Hermione couldn't shake off the feeling that professor Dumbledore was keeping something away from her, that he knew something more than he was letting on.

Frustrated by this and also by the fact that Draco's hand felt freezing in her own, Hermione let his hand go and stood up from the bed. She wasn't going to just sit there next to him and watch his life disappearing from his body. It would be too cruel, too cowardly to do something like that. Without any hesitation she went to the only place that could help her – The Library.

* * *

The Restricted Section of the Hogwarts' Library was locked and out of boundaries for most students in the school. It was a place where dangerous books on things that school doesn't teach were kept. That was also the only place where Hermione could hope to find a solution for Draco's condition. She used the permission professor Slughorn gave her a week ago when they started working on a potion. Hermione didn't think she was going to use it, but it certainly came in handy.

Shuffling through the books, she found herself frowning a lot. There were many dark titles that were forbidden, books Hermione usually wouldn't even dare read. But now, that was not an option and she pulled out three large tomes about darkest curses and potions that she deemed could help the situation Draco was in. She sat at one of the far away tables so that nobody could notice her as they entered the library. First thing she decided on doing was finding which curse he had been hit. This was easier said than done, she realized as she searched through the large book. Her shoulder still ached as she turned the pages but she ignored it, she will have enough time to cleanse it later.

"_The Mistress of Midnight_" was a book written in late fifteenth century which is considered the largest collection of dark curses in the world. It was first written by Oxilliana, a powerful Dark Witch who specialized in deathly potions. Her book was told to be magically expanding every time when a new dark curse is created, thus making the large tome bigger by the year.

The information about the curse Draco has been hit with was scarce. Dumbledore mentioned something about the curse torturing the body and soul until the mind cannot take the pain anymore and it shuts down on itself. There were several curses that had similar effects to those and Hermione couldn't decide what curse was the one Draco was suffering from.

She cussed colorfully as she passed her fingers through her thick hair, plucking out some spider web left overs out of it.

"My, I never thought I would see the day," a familiar voice mocked "Hermione Bennett reading that book from the restricted section. Isn't life full of miracles?"

"I don't want to talk to you right now, Riddle," Hermione said as she shuffled through the few more pages, writing the names of the possible curses on a piece of parchment.

"Too bad, Hermione, because I want to talk to you and you owe me a favor," he slipped into the chair across her and looked at what she was writing "So, tell me what someone like you is doing here with one of the darkest books in existence?" his eyes hovered around her face as she struggled with the page in front of her.

"Why do you care? Just let me do whatever I want, it's none of your business," she sharply answered, refusing to look at his face.

"I don't care, not really," he shrugged "But, I am sure it has something to do with poor Draco Mallard who will very soon die a painful death," her head snapped up and she looked at his impassive face, amusement barely visible.

"He is not going to die," Hermione hissed and turned a few more pages of the book angrily. It seemed to please him that he could affect her.

"I was right," he said and leaned on his elbows with a smirk "You don't even have to say anything, your eyes tell me everything I need to know about how you feel,"

"That isn't that hard to tell, Riddle, because I always feel the same set of emotions when you're around," she said as she wrote another dark curse on her piece of parchment.

"Then you'll be feeling that way for a long time, Hermione, because I am not going anywhere," he said with a voice just a fraction quieter than before, making his words get a strange ring to them. Hermione suppressed a shiver.

"Fine, if you want to stay, please do," she said finally "But just keep quiet,"

She couldn't understand the book as well as she wanted to and that made her even more on the edge than anything else did. Hermione never had any experience with Dark Arts, and since the future Dark Lord in front of her wasn't offering her any help, she was completely on her own. She frowned deeply and sighed as she read another page.

"I got the impression that Mallard had no chances of surviving," he continued, ignoring her request "That was what the old codger said, anyway,"

"Yes, professor Dumbledore," she corrected him with a frown "Might've mentioned that,"

"And yet, you go behind his back and search through the darkest books in the restricted section, all that on your own accord," he seemed satisfied as he watched her blush slightly on his accusations "You don't believe him, not really, do you?"

Hermione kept quiet, because she knew that somewhere in the back of her mind she knew he was right, but she would never admit it to him out loud. There has to be a solution, but it was probably something Dumbledore didn't like, probably something dark and damaging. It still didn't matter to Hermione, as long as Draco got better, she was very intent on saving him. If professor Dumbledore thought bad about her because of it, so be it, she could live with that. What she couldn't live with was letting someone die if there was even a small chance of saving them.

"I think I got my answer," he said with a smirk "You are quite like an open book, Hermione Bennett,"

"Watch out, Riddle, books can be very dangerous. The open ones more so than the closed ones," she retorted with her gaze still concentrated on the book.

"This is true, but I stay behind what I've said," he continued "You are like an open book, a very dark and dangerous book,"

"Why a dark and dangerous book?" she frowned as she scribbled further down the parchment in front of her.

"Because dark books are full of knowledge, alluring and captivating, they are addictive, Hermione," he said making her shiver slightly.

Her eyes shot up to his, and she realized what a mistake it was. He was close, his face just a few inches away from hers as he watched her every reaction closely. Hermione wanted to divert her gaze but found it hard to remember how to control her movements. Riddle smirked knowingly and sat back in his chair, satisfied with her. She narrowed her eyes at him and then managed to move her eyes away from his and take a deep breath.

"Why are you trying to save him, Hermione?" she hated how he used her name like something exotic, something that belonged to him, like the two of them were familiar with each other.

"He's my friend, that's what friends do for each other," she said "But, you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

"No, I can't say I would," he said calmly "I don't see what you get from him surviving. He will just continue ignoring you or start insulting you like he did in your first two weeks here,"

"I don't need to get anything out of it," she said angrily "It's enough that he'll live,"

"Don't lie to me, Hermione," his voice was calm but held an irritated edge. He was bored of playing this game with her, bored of her moral choices and her brilliant mind clouded with feelings. She shot him a guilty look and he smirked coldly "Ah, you just don't want to be alone. See, that was easy, there's no need for you to lie to me, Hermione, nor is there any reason for you to do so. I will always be able to see the truth,"

Hermione saw that there was a red spark that passed through his dark blue eyes and she said nothing. Like this, with his mocking smile on his lips he looked so much as his future counterpart that it was actually very frightening. She gulped and shuffled through some more pages, trying to keep her mind off of him.

"Why did you save all those students?" she asked after a few seconds "I thought you didn't care about making friends,"

"I don't, but I do care about keeping my appearances and my reputation," he smirked "Imagine what an impact will this have. The Head Boy in Hogwarts saves his classmates and defeats Grindelwald's Dark Wizards. It is certainly going to leave a mark,"

"Yeah, the situation was certainly perfect for you," she said through her teeth, with an accusatory edge to her words.

"Actually it was quite unexpected, even ingenious on Grindelwald's side," he smirked "Of course, he never took me in the equation. Because of that mistake, he is going to fall… Very soon,"

"That's your brilliant plan? You're going to run after him, kill him and then take his place as a Dark Lord and rule over the world," she said, her voice dripping in sarcasm, although it was more-less what is truly going to happen.

"You're giving me some interesting ideas," he said dryly "Though I can't help feel that you've spent a lot of time thinking about this. Tell me does the planning about my demise keep you awake at night?" he switched his tone to playful.

"I hardly think about anything else than you," she said sarcastically "Usually I imagine how world would be a wonderful place if you could just shut up and stop being such an irritating bastard,"

"I knew I occupied some of your fantasies," he smirked with satisfaction, completely unmoved by her words, thus making her irritation jump up a notch or two at his answer.

If you only knew. Hermione ignored the not-so- subtle innuendo he dropped and smirked slightly, challenging him.

"Hardly," she huffed "Now that we've talked, can you leave me alone and let me find a solution before I lose my friend?" Hermione honestly asked, hoping that he would just go away and let her do what she came there to do.

"You'll never find what you're looking for in that book," he huffed, not satisfied that she broke apart their bickering "And even if you find something remotely similar, you won't be able to save your friend with it,"

"What do you mean? He was hit by a dark curse and this book contains them all," she frowned and looked at him "There isn't anywhere else I could look,"

"You are obviously new to dark books, aren't you?" he asked rhetorically with a smirk "_The Mistress of Midnight_ contains all dark curses, but who said that Draco was hit by a dark curse?"

"Well he certainly wasn't hit by a light curse," she snapped.

"No, it was something dark, just it wasn't a curse," he said cryptically.

"You saw what happened with him, didn't you?" she asked suddenly, her eyes trained on his "What was your trial room, your artifact and your enemies?"

"You're starting to ask the right questions," he smirked and then he stated in a bored tone "It was a desert, full of one type of gigantic worms that lived beneath the surface of the sand. The artifact we had was a black leather-bound journal. As soon as Mallard touched it, four Grindelwald's followers appeared. They weren't hard to fend off, but then Draco did something he shouldn't have…"

"What did he do, Riddle?" she asked.

"He tried to rip the journal apart," he snorted "The fool believed they would go back once he did. He was wrong, apparently, and because of that mistake he is now suffering a painful death at the hands of a warding spell,"

"Dear Merlin," Hermione shook her head "How could he try something so ridiculous?"

"You shouldn't let the stupidity of other people surprise you," he said.

"He isn't stupid, he was just scared and wanted to survive," Hermione defended.

"Oh, he did such a marvelous job at that," Riddle mocked "Tell me, what did you and Lestrange face in your trial room. It was the only one I wasn't able to reach,"

Hermione frowned slightly. How was that possible? Perhaps the glass shard wasn't cursed or perhaps it warded off Apparition. Probably the second one, though since the three Dementors were most probably not sent by professor Merrythought. They weren't the part of their initial training so it was only logical to suppose they were sent by Grindelwald.

"We were in a rain forest or something tropical like that," she answered "We first faced a large lair of Acromantulas on our way,"

"I can imagine Lestrange wasn't too thrilled," Riddle smirked with a condescending tone "He never did manage to overcome that childish fear,"

"Yes, well I think I helped him with that," she said "He fought quite remarkably against them, after his initial shock, that is. Then we had to solve a puzzle in order to open the door of an old temple. We got the hang of it quickly, and solved it before entering inside,"

"Merrythought was always fond of puzzles. If I had to guess it had something to do with runes and proverbs," on Hermione's raised eyebrows, he shrugged "She always puts at least one of those in the trials every time,"

"Anyway, our artifact was a small wooden box," she continued "Both me and Lestrange noticed something wrong with its magic. We finally decided to open it and that's when the three Dementors appeared. Since Lestrange didn't know how the Patronus Charm, I used it on the Dementors before we were transported back with the Auxilia pendant," Hermione ended her story without ever mentioning the glass shard. It wasn't really a safe move since Lestrange will most certainly tell him what exactly happened there. Riddle wasn't going to believe her word on it, he was going to check with his followers.

"You fended off three Dementors on your own? Quite interesting," he smirked "What did the box you mentioned contained?"

Mentally cursing, she bit her lip and looked at him, refusing to answer.

"I helped you figure out what really happened to your precious friend, and saved you who knows how much time," he clenched his jaw "You owe me answers,"

"I don't owe you anything anymore, Riddle," she crossed her arms "Besides it was just a piece of broken glass, nothing more. If anything, the box felt much more powerful,"

Hermione knew this wasn't necessarily a lie, but it wasn't the full truth either. Since Lestrange didn't actually see the piece of glass turning into a mirror, nor did he feel the pulsating magic inside it, he will probably say the same as she did.

"Where did this box with the piece of glass end up?" he asked.

"I don't know, and even if I did. What makes you think I would tell you?" Hermione narrowed her eyes. She really had no idea what happened with it ever since they came back by the Auxilia pendant. Lestrange couldn't have had it, she couldn't explain how, but she knew he didn't have it with him.

Riddle towered over the table and over her, his eyes flashing with anger. It was frightening to see it from that proximity and she suppressed a shiver as she gazed into those bottomless pits of midnight blue. It felt strange to know that she had nowhere to run if he attacked her now. He wasn't a careless person and he certainly put a silencing spell over them as soon as he came. He wouldn't risk anyone hearing what he had just told her.

"If you want your friend to survive, you will tell me everything," he said with a cold and quiet voice that was much scarier than loud yelling "Or else, you might just send Draco dear into death much, _much_ faster than the curse ever could," he whispered at her "Do you understand this?"

Hermione's eyes widened for a fraction as she stared at him. He threatened her using Draco Mallard's life. It was almost ironic. She gulped slightly and nodded just barely. Satisfied, the future Dark Lord smirked and moved one of her locks behind her ear. Then, he moved back and sat in his chair, still watching her intently.

"Go to the Infirmary to get that gash on your shoulder healed and clean yourself, then rest," he ordered her easily as he rose from his chair with ease and went to the shelf "I will meet you at this table, tonight at one," and as easily as that he dismissed her. He turned his back at her and towards the shelf.

"What are you going to do?" she asked with confusion.

"I am going to find what ward was used on your friend," he frowned at the last word as he opened a book in his hands, shuffling with disinterest through the pages with his long, pale fingers.

"Why?" she frowned and stood up from the chair, feeling her tense muscles and bruises along her body.

"Can't I do it out of the goodness of my heart?" he asked dryly.

"No," she immediately answered "You're not really a good person, and I have yet to discover you have a heart," Hermione crossed her arms, tensing a bit because of the sharp pain in her shoulder.

"Everyone has a heart, otherwise I wouldn't be alive," he retorted, not raising her gaze from the book in his hands.

"That's not the heart I was referring to," she told him, deadpanned "Besides, you're also a Slytherin so you expect something in return for your help,"

"You're a Slytherin, too," he smirked "Although you sometimes sound more like a preaching Gryffindor. Besides, if I help you, you'll owe me a favor again,"

"There you go, I knew you had a certain agenda," she said.

"As do you, Hermione," he smirked, not looking at her "Besides, I like when you owe me favors,"

"I'm sure you do," she muttered.

"Now leave and heal that before you get the wound infected and die," he said dismissively "Then no one would be able to return the favor and I'll just have to kill Mallard, which is a bother. Perhaps I could just wait and see how long will he survive without you watching his back. Not long, I believe,"

Hermione murmured something colorful as she left the library and went towards the Infirmary.

* * *

When Hermione finally left her shower, her shoulder was uncomfortably sore. Mrs. Danes took care of the large gash, closed it and wrapped it with a white bandage. Other minor injuries on her body were still there, because Hermione didn't want Mrs. Danes to keep her in the Infirmary for the night. She couldn't bear to stay in that place any longer than absolutely necessary. The bodies of the dead students were moved away and some of the other seventh year students awoke during the day. Draco's state remained on its route from bad to worse. Mrs. Danes said that he will probably awake by tomorrow morning by the pain. Hermione wasn't sure whether she was going to visit him.

Cassiopeia was spending most of her time next to Avery's bed in the Infirmary since she was among the students who weren't seriously injured, which was surprising considering she could barely hold her wand straight. Unna was sitting silently on the bed, most of her serious wounds healed in the Infirmary earlier that day, but her emotional state remained fragile and Hermione didn't want to risk it, so she just kept the comfortable silence.

Abraxas and Marcus also woke up few hours after Hermione left the Infirmary. They were held there for further inspection, but were alive and speaking. Abraxas was quite proud of himself and never missed the opportunity to speak of his heroic deeds to anyone who passed by him in the Infirmary. Hermione heard some of the first years talking about him in a story full of embellishments. Marcus on the other hand didn't speak much, she just heard that he ate a lot since he woke, so everything was probably well with him too.

Orion Black was the only person, except Draco, who didn't wake up but according to what Hermione heard he was going to be fine. He was hit with some more serious curses before he managed to overcome five banshees that were sent after him. Apparently, their scream left some more serious internal damage his body needed to heal before he woke up.

Drying her hair with a quick drying spell, Hermione got it up in a high tail. Her reflection in the mirror looked positively ghostly. She was too pale, making her freckles and the dark circles around her eyes look much darker than they usually did. There were still some small scratches on her face that made her seem like she just fought for her life. Which she did, but she hoped it wouldn't be so obvious on her face. Standing in front of the mirror she also noticed that there was a large bruise on her neck she didn't notice before.

Hermione was now feeling surprisingly calm with the situation at hand. After the initial emotional outburst full of shock, guilt and anger, she was left void of all emotions. All Hermione now felt was tiredness. Not even the fact that Tom Riddle was working on finding a way to save Draco seemed to budge her much. He said that he wanted to help her so that she owed him a favor. It was strange, considering that he used every favor he had so far only to talk to her. Information was, after all, a young Dark Lord's best friend. Or something along those lines, anyway.

Letting her head fall on her pillow, Hermione finally stopped the thoughts from drizzling through her mind. She let the darkness engulf her and lull her into the calm and silent sleep.

* * *

It was 00:45 when Hermione woke from her sleep. She groaned slightly when she felt a headache pulsing in her skull. This was already a bad beginning of a new day, she realized grimly as she slowly got up and dressed in her uniform. On the other side of the room she could hear the faint snoring coming from the other two girls. Unna and Cassiopeia were both sleeping firmly and Hermione was glad to see that their faces were relaxed. She knew how it felt to be plunged into war, see your friends and schoolmates get hurt and die in front of you. It was a hard, never-ending job, which Hermione often carried into her bed. Nightmares were, after a while, something she got used to.

Taking out her black cloak out of her chest, Hermione left the girls' dormitories and the empty common room. The younger students were sent to bed earlier today because of the accident and the seventh years from all Houses were also asked to stay in their common rooms after seven. It still wasn't decided whether the trip for Hogsmeade, on Sunday was still on. Professors knew that it was dangerous to send students to be out of Hogwarts so soon after the attack, but something cheerful that would raise the spirits was desperately needed now. Hermione never felt happier to see that it was a Saturday before.

As she deftly moved through the empty corridors of Hogwarts, Hermione suddenly remembered something that didn't really catch her attention before. She's read Hogwarts, A History more times than she could count, and yet she has never heard of any tragedy like this on the DADA trials where three students died. Actually, she was very sure that Grindelwald never actually attacked the school nor any of the students. A cold shiver made her gasp. They did it! They changed the timeline and by doing so they managed to kill three people. Hermione felt her stomach hurt. She needed to find out who died there so that she could see how much exactly they moved the timeline from its original course.

Hermione pushed the door of the Library, silencing the screech it made when it opened. Fair to his words, Riddle was sitting at the same table he found her sitting seven or so hours ago. His back was turned towards her and Hermione could clearly see that there was a book open in his lap. As she moved in front of him she noticed something strange. Tom Riddle appeared to be asleep.

Hermione frowned at the way he looked calm and _un_-dark-lord_-ish_ in that particular situation. His head was propped on one of his hands, a large book open in his lap. He almost looked like any other young and innocent young man. _Almost_. He was probably as calm as he was because he was dreaming about something terrible. Did the young Dark Lord dream? Perhaps he did, about killing puppies or torturing small kittens, or about something equally terrible. Hermione frowned at that idea.

Moving her gaze away from his perfect face, Hermione looked down on the table to see his notes. They were written on a piece of parchment in a beautiful, cursive handwriting that was slightly turned towards left. The piece of parchment was partially hidden away by his hand. Pursing her lips she put her fingers on the other side of the parchment and glided slightly, hoping to get the parchment out of his grasp. Before she could move it an inch, his hand caught her wrist and the hand his head was propped onto was now holding a wand on her throat. There was a dangerous gleam in his eyes that lasted for a beat before he recognized her.

"Don't ever try to sneak up on me, Bennett," he said sharply, his wand still drilling holes in her throat "Or it might end up really, really messy," Riddle withdrew his wand back in his pocket , completely awake. Hermione just nodded and sat across him as he glared at her.

"Did you find anything?" she asked him.

"Have a little faith in me, Bennett," he said dryly "I located the ward that was used and a possible solution. Though I doubt you will find it… Satisfactory,"

"What do you mean?" Hermione crossed her arms.

"First things first," he announced "Before I disclose any of the information I gathered for you, I want something in return,"

"Yes, you already mentioned this," she drawled in a bored tone "I'll owe you a favor, I understood the terms when I accepted your… Help, for the first time,"

"Good. But I want this favor to be bigger than the first two," he smirked, but before she could riot he continued "Because I have finished your job, that could've possibly taken you days, if not weeks or months to finish. I think I deserve a big favor,"

"Fine," she spat "Just as long as I don't have to hurt anyone else, I think I can accept most other conditions,"

_You've just made a deal with the devil… The brightest witch of her time, my arse_. A voice nudged her in her head, but she suppressed it.

"Splendid," his amusement was obvious as he saw that she was battling with herself because of those words "Now that you know the terms, I've written everything you need to know in my notes," Riddle gave her the piece of parchment with a calculating gaze. With a careful move, Hermione took the parchment, very careful not to touch his fingers in the process.

"If you need any help with the magic, I would be more than happy to help you," he said, keeping his calculating gaze on her "I just_ love _making deals with you,"

"I think I can handle it from here," she said, narrowing her eyes at him. This statement made his amusement more obvious as he rose from his chair and took a step towards Hermione, so that he can tower over her like he did before. Unfortunately, it was even more frightening when she could see amusement and new ideas arising in his eyes as he watched her, instead of anger.

"Of course you can," he smiled, but it never managed to reach his eyes "You are a very capable witch, aren't you, Hermione?"

"So I've heard," she answered coldly, intent on not looking at him. But, it seemed like he had different plans. Riddle put just one finger under her chin and raised it up, so that she had little option but to look straight at his dark eyes. That small touch sent strange shivers through her body and made her feel extremely uncomfortable. She refused to show it, so she just continued looking at him defiantly.

"Go now, save your friend and enjoy your time," he said "But be ready once I call on you to repay your favor to me,"

"I can hardly wait," she replied dryly, keeping her face emotionless.

"I know," he said, completely serious "But, until then watch out what you do and what you say, Hermione. I can't really let someone ruin my plans, not even if that someone is as… _Intriguing_ as you. Trust me when I say that you will be the first person on my list if anything goes wrong,"

"I know," she just simply answered, praying that he would let go of her gaze.

"Good," he looked into her eyes for a few more seconds before slowly removing his finger from under her chin. She gasped at the sudden loss of contact of his skin on hers.

"Have a pleasant night, Hermione," he smiled before he turned around and left Hermione alone in the library with nothing else on her mind but the strong feeling of excitement and fear mixed in her stomach.

Something was about to go terribly wrong and she could already feel it.

* * *

**Thanks for reading, and leave a review if you liked it, or if you didn't, even if it made you feel indifferent! The next chapter _'Secrets of the Blood_****_'_****will raise some interesting questions about Hermione's blood status, we'll deal with saving Draco's life and an irritated young Dark Lord! Until next time ^^**

**-Daianira**


	8. Secrets of the Blood

**A/N: I am so sorry you had to wait so long! I swear I don't remember when I had a busier week. School was horror as always, I had competitions to attend and my head almost bursted from all the information I had to take in. Mehh, I survived but I barely had the time to write anything up until today. So I really apologize once more, and I promise I'll try and get the next chapter by the end of the week!**

**I really want to thank everyone who followed or put this story on their favorite list! It means a lot to see people are actually supporting this! Also, special thanks to my reviewers and all those who reviewed as guests, just so you know I really appreciate everything you write!**

**Person P - thanks so much! **

**NHEE - you made me laugh, so this chapter is especially for you! I hope it was worth the wait!**

**ByulBa - thank you very much, I'm trying and it's nice to see that people are enjoying it!**

**Cassie-D1 - I certanly hope this chapter will be to your liking also!**

**varee - I'll probably change some things with the story once I finish with it, so all the icky parts will have to go. I've really spent time thinking about your tips and they really helped me to get some things straight about the story and where the story will go next! Thanks a lot for that!**

**Life-is-rolling-keep-on-going - yep, that's the idea. I doubt you'll see much 'nice' Riddle in this fic...**

**real talk - I might be able to incorporate them later on, since I've already had some thoughts on that. Thanks a lot!**

**Nivellia Neil - Thank you very much, I'll try and update the story as often as I can!**

**On with the story then, enjoy it and leave some reviews! ^^**

* * *

**Chapter 8: Secrets of the Blood**

Hermione was sitting on her bed. It was an early morning and none of her dorm mates were up. She, on the other hand, wasn't even feeling tired and even if she did Hermione knew she wouldn't be able to fall asleep. She hesitantly took the piece of parchment in her hand and eyed it over again. The contents weren't changed in the least. Pursing her lips as she thought, she put the piece of parchment back beside her. She did that a few times since she came back to her dormitory.

Any other day, Hermione would be thrilled to have a solution on the palm of her hand. But, now that the solution was right there, she was very hesitant whether to use it or not. She let herself fall on the pillows beneath her and took a deep breath. Someone's life was far more important than her own inconvenience.

Riddle did a good job. Actually, he did a job that was slightly too perfect for Hermione to go through. Even as she read the paper he wrote in his wonderful handwriting, she felt a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. What she was about to do is dark, much darker than anything else she ever tried. But as long as it was used for a good cause, nothing was supposed to go wrong. It wasn't truly a complex spell and it didn't require any special ingredients, but it was the incantation that required a lot of power to finish.

"Hermione, you're awake?" one of the girls croaked. Hermione recognized Unna's voice.

"Yeah, I'm thinking," Hermione answered.

"At four in the morning?" Unna asked with a yawn.

"It's never too early to think," Hermione shrugged slightly as she took a deep breath. Suddenly, she felt all the tiredness and stress hanging over her head on a single thread. Her bed and pillow never felt more accommodating than in that single moment.

"It's Saturday, so I'll just delay the thinking until later," Unna said and Hermione could hear her shuffling in her bed with the sheets comfortably.

"Sure, sleep tight," Hermione said absentmindedly to which Unna just replied something incomprehensible.

It didn't take long after that for Hermione to be comfortably lulled into the darkness. The silence in the female dorm room was complete. Hermione was partly lying on her bed, her head was on her pillow, but her legs were dangling over the edge. Her body still dressed in her uniform, her hair up in a high bun with a few ringlets circling her face. Even in her sleep, she was frowning deeply, her body not relaxed by sleeping. The small piece of parchment, written with a perfect handwriting was lying on her side.

* * *

Hermione ate her breakfast as fast as she could. Before slipping away to the Infirmary, Hermione took one of the knives from the table into her uniform. Although both Mrs. Danes and professor Dumbledore predicted Draco would wake up in the morning, he didn't. Apparently the warding spell that was cast upon him pressured the body so much he didn't have the strength to open his eyes.

"Could you… Leave us for a moment," Hermione blinked a few times, as if to chase the tears away "I would like to say my goodbyes," her eyes were big and pleading as she tried to convince Mrs. Danes to leave her alone with Draco.

"Of course, darling," she nodded vehemently "Take all the time you need,"

As soon as she was gone, Hermione looked over to Draco. His skin was still deathly pale and he was still not moving. Most of the other students were already released from the Infirmary, including all the Slytherins who were mostly eager to tell their stories of valor and bravery to the younger students. Only Lestrange and Riddle kept quiet, both glancing towards her on occasion, as she felt their gazes upon herself while she was staring at her plate. Hermione took the first opportunity she could to leave the table.

Taking out her beaded bag out of her inner pocket, Hermione glanced around the Infirmary once more. There was no one inside beside her and two more students who were sleeping on the beds. Hermione took out a small vial out of the bag. Taking Draco's hand into hers, Hermione turned it palm up.

"Sorry, but this is for your good," Hermione took out the small knife she took from the table. Frowning she pushed it into the skin, creating a thin, red line across his wrist. She took the vial and collected a few drops of his blood, trying not to spill anything on the snow-white sheets beneath him. When the vial was half full, she closed it and dropped it into her beaded bag.

"Episkey," she muttered as she moved her wand in the well-known pattern. The thin red line faded completely in seconds. Satisfied, Hermione sighed deeply. In her hand she was still holding Draco's, which was as cold as ice. She leaned a bit forward and kissed his forehead, promising him silently that she was going to solve everything. Seconds later, she let go of his hand and left the Infirmary in a few quick steps.

Good thing about most Saturdays was that she had much more time to spend in the library, but what made this particular Saturday much better than those was the fact that it was Hogsmeade Saturday. This would usually mean relaxing and having fun with her friends. Unfortunately, Hermione realized, her only so-called friend was on his deathbed and she had a really hard time relaxing while trying to save his life with a dark ritual. These few facts really didn't do much to improve her mood for this particular Saturday.

"Busy?" a voice eerily familiar made her halt and turn around.

"Yes, you know how is it, saving your friend's life and so," Hermione smiled with a fake cheer "Oh, wait, no you don't know," she crossed her arms on her chest.

"How mean," he smirked "And here I was trying to offer my help to you,"

"Thank you, but no," she said "I can handle it on my own,"

He started walking towards her with his malicious smirk still in place. Hermione suddenly felt endangered and she had to stop her leg from moving a step backward as he walked, closing in the distance between them. He had a look that frightened her, reminding her of what he was going to become, but she was persistent and her eyes never left his as he walked. He stopped right in front of her, close enough to make her uncomfortable, but far enough so that nobody would ever suspect anything.

"Tell me, Hermione," he started, cocking his head slightly on the side "Have you ever used Dark magic?"

Hermione frowned and winced slightly when he used her first name. She concentrated on his question. It was probably very obvious to him that she wasn't someone who used Dark magic on daily basis. Unlike him, of course, who already knew everything that there was to know. Pursing her lips slightly she sighed and pulled her gaze from his, not happy that she had to admit these things least of all to him.

"I have," she shrugged "Nothing this complex, but I've used some dark spells before,"

"And yet, you refuse my help when I so gladly offer it," he said, his face not showing any surprise at her statement. Suddenly, Hermione remembered something about the young Dark Lord that Harry might've mentioned. He was a Legilimens. He could've read her mind a thousand times by now, she realized. How stupid she was, Hermione felt like slapping herself.

"And I will continue refusing it," she said, her eyes locked to the side "I have all the instructions I need on the parchment you gave me,"

"Is that so?" she could practically hear him smirk.

"Yes. Now, if you don't have any other requests I can refuse, I'll be on my way," Hermione said with obvious irritation and turned on her heel. But before she could make a step, Riddle grasped her elbow and pulled her back. Much to her annoyance, she ended up crashing in his chest. Keeping her right there by her elbows, just an inch or two away from his body he tsked quietly.

"You do not leave until I say so," he whispered in her hair, as Hermione bit her lower lip, her heart pounding in her chest.

"Screw you, Riddle, I leave whenever I want to," she said, mimicking his low voice, her anger obvious. It was a mistake, she realized with a frown as his hands now gripped her elbows more painfully than before. He didn't like to be disobeyed? What a surprise, Hermione now knew how to push his buttons and this knowledge made her bruises worth it. Raising her eyebrow at him, Hermione noticed that his eyes were now almost completely black. It wasn't a good sign.

"What I gave to you, Hermione, I could very easily take away," his voice was still quiet but now his anger was mingling in between the words.

"What do you want from me?" she hissed finally, tired from everything that was happening. She gulped as she felt his hands tightening a bit more on her arms.

"It doesn't matter what I want, the point is that you will give it to me," he said "Whatever I want, whenever I want, you will be at my service or your friend will suffer. It would truly be a shame for you to save him just so he could die because of your mistakes, wouldn't it?" he smirked at her.

Hermione's eyes widened as she heard him. She was ridiculous to think she could make deals with him so easily. Nothing about Lord Voldemort was ever easy. His eyes stared intently at hers, but beneath his anger she could clearly see that he was satisfied with what he saw on her face. He's won this time and there was no denying that.

"Do you understand the terms?" he inquired.

"Why do you get to set all the terms?" she asked quietly instead of answering.

"Because I hold all the cards in this game," he smirked "And you are going to listen to my rules unless you wish to lose," Riddle answered simply. Somehow, Hermione was sure that losing in this game wasn't going to be pleasant.

"Is this clear, Hermione?" he asked once more, leaving her no space to think.

"It is," she said finally, her head lowering slightly. She needed to play this game by his rules until she gained the upper hand. Her first stop in doing so was waking up Draco.

"Good," he released her elbows "You will meet me tonight at midnight at the entrance to the Forbidden Forest,"

"Wha..?" she started as she raised her head towards him.

"No questions, just come and bring the ingredients needed," he said calmly. Hermione closed her mouth and frowned. Riddle smirked at this and moved one of her stray curls behind her ear. This simple action made her skin uncomfortable and she moved her face away from him, but he grasped her chin and raised it towards him.

"Remember, whatever I want, whenever I want," he smirked and released her chin before walking away through the long hallway and leaving Hermione bruised and her heart pounding erratically in her chest. She took a deep breath and gulped, finally relaxing. He was completely out of his mind, and that was okay by Hermione, it made it easier to want to kill him but why was he interested in spending time around her – assaulting her, threatening her, was beyond her. It was strange that a person who can have such an educated and civil discussion with her in classes could change so much once the classes were over.

As Hermione turned away she started walking away. On her way there she glanced through the large window, seeing carriages that led students to Hogsmeade. That was the right moment, the school was deserted and it was finally time to finish what she needed to for saving Draco. This also meant completely emptying her mind from the annoyingly obsessive young Dark Lord with an unhealthy hobby of threating her. Life was peachy once more.

* * *

It wasn't that hard finding the Room of Requirement, not if you knew where to look. Having a lot of experience with this particular room, Hermione needed only few moments to find the door. It also helped that the corridors were abandoned and that professors were also in Hogsmeade leaving Hermione completely alone to do whatever she wanted with the whole castle. The only person there was Mrs. Danes who was stuck in the Infirmary and two professors she didn't know and who didn't pay much heed to her, which made her mission much easier than she previously anticipated it would be. Her satisfaction was even more visible as she saw that it looked like a large Potions classroom, full of equipment and ingredients she might need.

She pulled out the vial with Draco's blood on the table and spilled it in a larger vial. With a deep breath, she took the knife out from her beaded bag. It was just a little blood, it was nothing if she was going to save a life with it. Deciding it would probably be better if she was fast, Hermione slashed her right palm. Since her left still wasn't healing from the Time Turner glass, she was afraid to try and agitate the wound. She let out a hiss of pain as dark blood started dripping down her skin and into the large vial. Hermione casted a small healing spell, relieved that the pain was slowly disappearing.

The larger vial was now filled with dark blood. Her own and Draco's. The blood was mixed together and one could see no difference. Hermione smiled slightly. Another proof that blood was blood, and that it didn't matter who it belonged to. Raising the vial higher and closer to her eyes she inspected it. Ridiculous purebloods and their supremacy ideals. Putting the vial down on the table, Hermione carefully chopped seven poppy petals. She put them into the vial and closed it with a sigh.

She was only half way through. It was now time for the hard part.

* * *

Between constant running back and forth from the library to the Room of Requirement, Hermione was positively starving at dinner time. Unfortunately, dinner was over before she found the time to go to the Great Hall and enjoy it. That was why she used her brilliant and quick passage that Ron discovered at their second year that led to the kitchens.

The elves were kind enough to make her a sandwich and a cup of tea. She thoroughly enjoyed her meal and used the time there to ask some questions about Riddle, the professors and Hogwarts. As everyone else, they too were smitten by the Head Boy from hell. Hermione wasn't even sure why she tried to find something discriminating against him when it was obvious that he left no trails behind him.

"Hermione!" Cassiopeia called her as Hermione was walking along the hallways, eating a chocolate cookie the elves gave her.

"Hey, how was Hogsmeade?" Hermione asked as the dark haired girl started walking next to her.

"Good," Cassiopeia grinned, making Hermione gape at her "It was really nice. But that wasn't why I wanted to talk to you about,"

"Oh?" Hermione asked, her eyebrows raised "What about?"

"Professor Slughorn announced one of his parties next Saturday, so I got the wonderful honor of distributing all the invitations," Cassiopeia rolled her eyes as she searched through her expensive-looking black leather bag that was strapped on her shoulder.

"Here you go," she pushed a white envelope with Hermione's name on it in her hands "It's just a casual get-together since Slughorn wants to meet the new members of his club, so nothing classy. Though, I've heard there will be a large party on Halloween," Cassiopeia shrugged.

"Thanks… I was actually hoping I could avoid this," Hermione sighed as she put the envelope in her pocket "But I guess now that I have an invitation that won't be possible,"

"You don't really have to stay long, just an hour or two and then you can probably slip by without being noticed," Cassiopeia said "That's what I do and he never notices,"

"I just might do that," Hermione smiled "Anyways, I need to go and finish something, but I'll talk to you in the dormitory,"

"Of course," she nodded and left in the opposite direction, towards the dungeons.

Instead going to the library, Hermione sat on a bench and took a deep breath. It was half past eight already, students were back and her precious silence in the library was long gone. She had everything she needed to start the ritual, and with some luck, Draco would be awake by tomorrow. Why this scared her, Hermione couldn't tell. With another sigh she pushed herself up and slowly started walking towards the dungeons. Might as well get some sleep before she started saving lives and dealing with her favorite young nemesis.

Upon entering the Common Room of Slytherin, Hermione could hear hushed voices. She stopped before reaching the two people who were talking. From her point of view she couldn't see who was speaking, all that she could deduce was that both of the voices belonged to a male.

"I already checked it with my parents," one of the voices said "They've never heard of such a family,"

"He isn't going to like this," the other voice said "How sure are you? I think we should recheck the information about the last name before saying anything to him. Better to take our time then to make a mistake,"

"If he calls a meeting, we won't have any other choice but to tell him," the first voice hissed with irritation "I'm not risking anything,"

"Right, me either," the second voice agreed "I just think that if we make a mistake the consequences will be much more brutal. You heard what he said about making mistakes…"

"Yes,yes," the first voice said with a drawl "We'll just be careful, and he won't be able to do anything. I'll show you the letters I've received from my parents,"

"Anything of importance?" the second boy asked.

"Apparently, there are no pureblood families in Britain with the last name of Bennett. There's a Mallard family in France but apparently they don't have any sons, just three daughters,"

"What does this mean?" second voice inquired again.

"As I said, I am not going to try and deduce anything. We will just tell him what we know and let him bring his own conclusions," the first voice answered and Hermione could hear him pacing quietly through the Common Room.

"Fine… We should leave, other students could be coming any time now,"

The hushed voices left the Common Room. Hermione relaxed slightly and left the shadows before stepping inside. They've been researching about her and Draco, their origins. It didn't help much that all Slytherins came from powerful and influential families that could easily pull a few strings and discover that Hermione was never truly homeschooled by her father and that Draco never really did go to Durmstrang. This was an unwelcome problem she will need to solve.

Hermione knew that if they found out that she was a Muggleborn, she will lose any kind of leverage she had. She could always try and lie that she was a half-blood. With a sigh she left into the girls' dormitory, intent on having a nap before her meeting with Riddle. What a happy day indeed.

* * *

It was ten to midnight when Hermione left her dormitory. All kinds of thoughts plagued her mind and she could barely close her eyes for a moment. When she woke up, she actually felt more tired than when she came into the room. Both Unna and Cassiopeia were chatting from their beds about Hogsmeade and since Hermione couldn't do much to make the conversation much more interesting she found herself falling asleep and waking up. It was like an endless loop, until she decided it was enough, she took a quick bath and gathered all of the things she'll need tonight for her meeting with her favorite Dark Lord.

The hallways of Hogwarts were empty. The prefects probably finished their rounds some hour or two earlier. This meant that nobody would come to the rescue if Riddle decided she wasn't interesting anymore or if he discovered of her true blood status. Hermione gulped. The idea of meeting with the future darkest wizard of all times near the Forbidden Forest at midnight seemed less and less appealing by the second.

"Hermione," a familiar voice drawled her name. She turned around to see Riddle.

"Riddle," she said coldly, trying not to shake on the freezing night air.

"Have you brought everything?" he asked.

"Yes, mixed blood with the petals of poppy," she took out her vial out of her beaded bag "I also brought the feather of phoenix with me," the Room of Requirement always had exactly what she needed.

"Ah, perfect. I will refrain myself from asking where you attained such a rare ingredient," he smirked slightly as he passed by her "For now," Riddle continued walking towards the Forest.

"Where are we going?" Hermione frowned, but followed after him.

Although Hermione knew that he heard her perfectly well, she didn't push with her question. It was obvious he knew something she didn't and she would hate to screw up the spell right now when she could basically feel how close she was. Draco was going to be alive by tomorrow morning, she vowed to herself and to him quietly.

Riddle continued walking through the dark forest, his yew wand ready in front of him. He mostly kept quiet, only reminding Hermione to watch out not to step into some rare plant, since he walked in front of her. She also kept her wand up, her lips ready to utter defensive spells just in case anything decided to attack. Although the two didn't spoke, the forest was far from quiet.

Finally, Riddle stopped after twenty or so minutes of walking. He looked around him and then turned towards Hermione with a smirk. Her worry was probably written all over her face.

"This is it," he said "You will do the spell here,"

"Why here? I got the impression these types of spells worked best if the wounded was near the practitioner of spells," she frowned remembering something she read from the Restricted Section.

"Dabbling in Dark Arts?" he tsked "Just do as I said and don't worry, nothing could go wrong with that spell while I'm here," Riddle smirked confidently.

Hermione just glared at him for a moment. Refusing to answer to his cocky statement she brought out the vial from her beaded bag. She opened it and instantly her mind was filled with a metallic smell of it. Suppressing a shudder, Hermione looked up to Riddle who watched her closely with a concentrated look. He was obviously expecting her to make a mistake sooner or later. Hermione will be happy to prove him wrong.

"Why here and not in Hogwarts?" Hermione tried once more.

"Because there is a powerful ley line connecting this place and Hogwarts," he said simply.

"So the magic we use here will be travelling by it much more quickly and will probably end up on the other side as much more powerful," she said, finally understanding "But, if I make a mistake you do realize it will also lead to much more serious consequences then if the magic travelled by normal means?"

"I am quite aware of that," he hissed "Just get on with the spell,"

Hermione pursed her lips slightly. She turned away from him and towards the vial of blood. With a deep breath she made a mental note to remember and tell to Draco that he owed her big time once he was up. Raising the vial up, she put her lips on the cold glass and drank its contents. The salty and strange taste of the blood was mixed with small lumps of poppy petals and she needed to gather all of her strength not to throw up.

As all of the liquid passed her throat, Hermione coughed with a deep frown on her face. Not only was dark magic dangerous it obviously tasted foul and disturbing. On her side, Riddle watched her with fascination as she tried to keep the blood inside of her organism.

"The incantation, Hermione, you need to finish the spell," he urged her.

Hermione raised her wand from her pocket and with an intricate movement she learned only last night she spoke the words on Latin.

"Sanguinem Vinctum," she barely murmured through her teeth. Hermione almost hoped that the spell won't work. Unfortunately, before she could do much else, a sheer force brought her down on her knees and she bit out a yell of pain. The pain was terrible, her eyes closed in a silent prayer that it would all end soon. It hurt, but it was in no way similar to the Cruciatus Curse, or any other physical pain she ever felt. It was power being ripped away from her and then being stuffed back in. Hermione could almost feel the ley line sending the magic from her towards Hogwarts, and it was powerful, almost too powerful for her mind and body to handle at that moment.

When the power released her from its grip, Hermione could feel her body growing numb and falling to the ground. She could feel that something stopped her from falling down and she opened her eyes to see Riddle. His expression was serious but there was a certain glint in his eyes that told her he could feel the magic that was coursing through her so powerfully just moment ago. The second thing Hermione noticed was that she was shaking and that she was terribly cold.

"Did I do it right?" she barely said with her voice shuddering and her lips barely listening to her commands.

"Shhh, you did fine," he said seriously as he moved a stray curl aside from her forehead.

"What… What now?" Hermione inquired again.

"Now, we wait," Riddle answered, keeping his eyes on her face.

Hermione felt like she wanted to say something more, but her body just didn't want to listen to what she wanted anymore. Feeling extremely tired at that moment, not really caring about in whose arms she was in, Hermione felt her eyes closing. She didn't know if he noticed she fell unconscious in his arms, and even if he did, he said nothing. Hermione was perfectly fine with that.

* * *

**About next chapter: I am starting something I haven't seen anyone ever did in a Time Turner fic so I'm super excited! I'll need to be extra creative to pull this out so I really can't wait! Do you have any ideas about what am I talking about? Yes? No? Leave a review, you might just get it right!**

**I'll really try to post this by the end of the week, so I really hope you can be patient with me as I am getting through a hard school year and some smaller writer's blocks along the way. **

**Lots of regards,**

**-Daianira**


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